Adam's Apples

This bag held my stash of Gold Rush apples for two and a half seasons. It smells wonderful.

I've learned a lot by comparing apples, eating and weighing two different breeds together. Sometimes these head-to-head contests are lighthearted, sometimes for higher stakes, and sometimes to settle specific questions (such as, "is this early Mac very Mac-like?"). I almost always learn something new. Turns out, I've held more than 30 of these contests. Here are some of the more interesting ones.

Photographed June 11 I'm still eating the Gold Rush apples I laid down last Halloween and began eating in April.

Fooled again. It's not unusual this time of year to see one or two new kinds of apples in stores, fresh off the boat from New Zealand or other points south. So I pounced on Breeze when I found it last week in a local supermarket. To cut to the chase: They're Galas .

Apples to the rescue!  ¶  Note (or, perhaps, Warning): The Music Appreciation Department at Adam's Apples has selected a recording to play in the background as you read today's report.  ¶  Click the play button below for the full experience. Mid-spring is the nadir of the apple year. The fall harvest is a distant memory and the first apples of summer are 3 months distant.

To the extent this blog has a message, it is appreciation of the many diverse kinds of apples that are still grown, enjoyed, and loved. Towards that end from time to time I take my best shot at pitching alternatives to fans of some of the standard popular varieties.

Sweetland Orchard (or perhaps I should say, @SweetlandOrchrd ) has won me over this week by tweeting apple blossoms straight from the Minnesota farm: #appleblossomjournal Tweets The best thing? Sweetland is going variety-by-variety.