Adam's Apples

Arkansas Black and Blushing Golden flank each other in the January snow.  ¶  In January, with the harvest long ended, I typically turn to groceries and supermarkets for apples to eat.

Walk into any mainstream supermarket in the United States and you won't find this:  (Photo:  A stack of Golden Russet apples for sale at a supermarket in Montreal late last year. )  But russet apples are delicious, and mainstream-popular in other countries.

Twenty twenty-four was not a typical harvest (and, is there even such a thing?).  ¶  But it wasn't a bad harvest either, and in any case illustrates the rhythms, the rise and fall, of agriculture (as expressed at my local markets).  ¶  All of the apples for sale, by date, from July to the end of the outdoor markets in November of last year. It's from this spreadsheet . Last year, the apples started in mid-July with Vista Bella , peaking in fat October with 25 apple varieties on a single day, and dwindling to the final 11 the day before Thanksgiving.

Very best New Year's wishes to you, dear readers!  ¶  This busy fall included a healthy 17 "new" (to me) apples , some quite good. I published 23 posts in a single month ( October ).  ¶ I still owe you reports about some of the interesting orchards I visited last fall. Also per annual custom, I'll be applying my

These are small apples, barely bigger than crabs, with a deep red blush (streaky in spots) that covers a dull yellow-green.  ¶  They are mostly tapered and elongated, though there is variation, and are only slightly ribbed. Their shape is a little reminiscent of the larger Black Gilliflower's .  ¶  Swaths of what I think is the thinnest russeting I have ever seen show on small regions of some of these small apples.

The fall equinox is counted as the start of autumn. By that yardstick McIntosh , that icon of fall, is actually a summer apple.  ¶  And lots of other autumn-ish apples too.  ¶  My discomfort with that idea brought me around to thoughts of a special pomological fall . (Some of you pointed out it is not very different from meteorological fall .)  ¶  Now this blog reflects that.

Apple trees slumber in the late December sunshine yesterday at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts.