The 2020 harvest, plagued by pandemic and drought, has not been a total bust. The selection at farmers market has been limited. The Baldwins were not so great this year. However, Cox, Ashmead, and Stayman have been particularly good. Alas, barring some last-minute discoveries, this is not going to be a big year for new apple reviews.
A tasting table at Clarkdale Farm in less fraught times (Cider Days 2016). ¶ The season's traditional gatherings of apple and cider enthusiasts are virtual this year, in Maine, Western Massachusetts, and Colorado.
The fall of an apple, historical records suggests, did set Isaac's Newton's mind to work on the problem of gravity. There is no evidence, however, that fruit met noggin. The pomological record on the presumed apple, Flower of Kent , is murkier. Let's take these in order.
The doughty and dense Blue Pearmain is the apple of choice to power me through a 50-mile bike ride. It feeds the legs even as it challenges the jaw. Below, the blue fella on the wharf in lovely Mattapoisett yesterday (mile 25):
Today's treat is a new variety from New York's fruit-breeding program at Cornell University. Its handsome red blush, streaky, russet-blasted, and set off by distinctive light lenticel dots, is complex and pleasing. The underlying yellow, edged with green, shows through to degrees in some regions. There are patches of russet in the recess around stem and calyx (which is closed).