An amateur explores the pomaceous fruit
Travel has kept me from the early apples this year. I've missed the local farmers market where it is likely at least one vendor has offered Lodi or Vista Bella, or maybe even Pristine. ¶ Left to right: Vista Bella, Yellow Transparent, Puritan. ¶ This week, my wanderings took me past Red Apple Farm in Phillipston, Massachusetts, which did not disappoint. ¶ About a minute after I took the above…
I was traveling last week, and thus missed farmers market, where there were probably some early apples: Lodi at least, and maybe Vista Bella . ¶ I made it to an orchard on Friday. Things looked pretty good there! ¶ Hutchins Farm, in Concord, Massachusetts, did not have any apples to sell yet, but will soon by the look of things.
Eighteen is something like 180 in internet years. I never imagined when I started this blog in 2008 (an experiment writing about "a year of apples" ) that I'd learn so much, or that I'd still be learning and blogging in 2026. ¶ Possibly that year year-long commitment is what kept me going. I bagged 44 apples in the first six months (a number I have never matched in any subsequent full year). It…
After several years of neglect, these apple trees show signs of care. ¶ Some are even bearing fruit: ¶ The state of things at Nagog Hill Farm in Littleton, Massachusetts, last week. ¶ Alas, the farm has moved on, an orchard no more.
Surrounded by the plastic and newsprint that kept it over the winter, this 2025 GoldRush apple proved still good to eat in June of 2026. ¶ As things turned out, my eyes were bigger than my stomach when I squirreled away a score of these apples last fall to eat in April. ¶ But no matter: GoldRush is a phenomenal keeper apple , still good in June. This is my last one.
" From now on I will no longer be a monogamous apple consumer; instead, I will be in a harem with bedfellows by the name of jazz, yello, pink lady and envy." That was one of several lessons learned by Nicholas Jordan, a Sydney food writer, after a group tasting of 16 apple varieties from local markets and grocers. ¶ Not Australia: A tasting table at Clarkdale Farms in Deerfield, Massachusetts in…
SO FAR FROM THE HARVEST ( GoldRush (L) and Empire ) ¶ The late spring used to be enlivened by imports of (relatively) fresh apples from Chile, New Zealand, and other points south . ¶ Today these apples are swept away on the ebb tides of global commerce. (Tariffs? Hormuz Strait?) Things are a little bleak. ¶ This year I've found myself gravitating to the last of my GoldRush from the fall, and,…
A friend alerted me to a short broadcast about apples that aired on Boston's WGBH radio last month. ¶ The focus was on New England apples. It's streamable any time and available as a podcast. ¶ The April 27 episode of Under the Radar with Callie Crossley includes a 25-minute interview with Amy Traverso and Sean Turley that quickly gets into the good stuff.
King blossoms on an apple tree at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts, yesterday. ¶ First to come forth, the king blossom heralds the harvest to be. ¶ Blogger Chris, of A Life of Apples , tells us ❝ Every fruiting spur on an apple tree produces a cluster of six buds; five centered around a central blossom known as the King Blossom. This blossom is the first to open and pollination of it is key…
ῥοδοδάκτυλος Ἠώς: The buds on the trees at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts earlier today blush like eager debutantes While some in other climes report blossoms , we are in the chill stasis of a Massachusetts April. ¶ The cool temperatures slow the rhythms of spring. Magnolia, forsythia, and even cherry persist; apples are standing by.
A bud is opening on an apple tree in Lexington, Massachusetts yesterday. ¶ Some are reporting apple blossoms , but where I live things are still mostly buttoned up, though that is changing. ¶ It's still forsythia and cherries here, though just a few towns farther from the sea the magnolias are in full bloom. The apples cannot be far behind.
Tomorrow's apples take shape on a tree at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts earlier today. ¶ Pomological spring is a hopeful time, made dear by uncertainty.
Whan that April with his showres soot is when (whan?) GoldRush, that king of keepers, is ready to eat. ¶ It's also when I see how the ones I laid down in my refrigerator in December have fared in my home newsprint-and-perforated-plastic-bag storage system.
Yes that's snow! March 9 at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts. ¶ Temperatures here shot up from the 20s to the 70s (Fahrenheit) in the past week, so I hopped on my bicycle and peddled through the melt to Concord.
The Cortland apple has an ardent following. In September and October, I like Macs and Macouns, close Cort relations. Photo: McIntosh (L) and Cortland ¶ But lately, in February and now March, I have been enjoying Cortland's crisp vinous goodness. ¶ Let's see how it stacks up agains the Mac at this time of year.
Would you like to know an old-time apple recipe for Norfolk Biffin (or other fruit recipes , some from antiquity)? ¶ Perhaps you'd be interested in a deep dive into claims that some apples date from Roman times ? ¶ How about an introduction to apple and pear identification ? From a fellow who grew several score of different apples last fall?
Behold: ❝ A pineapple fucked a pear and somehow made a baby that looks like an apple. That is the Cox’s Orange Pippin . ❞ or this: ❝ Maiden’s Blush : Wet sad sandcastle heralds the death of summer, but at least it smells nice, so stick a wick in it and use it as a candle. ❞
Three apples rate a star. Two earn two. ¶ I tasted nine apple varieties for the first time last year. ¶ Alas, may of my examples were clearly past their prime. Consequently, I'm not able to give them the recognition they probably deserve. ¶ But first: What's going on? I rate apples every year at this time , using my own qualitative system, one to three stars .
Last fall I was invited to identify some apples growing in a neighbor's yard. ¶ Not to beat around the tree: these proved to be Northern Spy, something that the home owners had suspected. ¶ I'm not actually a great apple detective , so just as well! But my payment was a nice ration of these apples, reminding me of how good they are. ¶ Why did I need to be reminded?
Granny blushes, if you let her. ¶ You would not know it from prowling the supermarket, however: She is a late apple usually picked too soon. ¶ Today I will assay one from a local orchard. It was, maybe, allowed to ripen fully, though I am eating it more than a month after it was picked (and publishing this account even later than that, sorry!).
I begin 2026 with a refrigerator full of apples, and a number of half-finished blog posts and ideas from 2025. Several things, including some delightful travel, kept me away from this blog this fall. ¶ Photo: A Bramley's Seedling takes in the view from the walls of Edinburgh Castle.
I've reviewed Sunrise Magic, but want to share a second tasting of some that I found for sale at a fruit stand in Seattle. (And not just because they are worth choosing .) ¶ Most of the nation's Sunrise Magic crop grows in Washington, where it was bred by Washington State University. (WSU also created Cosmic Crisp.) ¶ It's always worth trying food grown in its native turf.
Apple cultivars are, literally, identical clones. Yet they can look very different depending on ripeness, growing conditions, and so forth. ¶ On that score, I have never before seen Ashmeads Kernels like these. ¶ Yet there they were, in a basket in a supermarket in Seattle on Halloween.
The apple trees are sleeping at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts.
The last outdoor market of the year spread its tattered wings under unseasonably warm skies on Wednesday, the day before the American Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November. ¶ The market in Davis Square, Somerville, here in Massachusetts encamps on Wednesdays from June to November. ¶ Thus it is ever fated to be among the very last, holding forth up to and including the day before every…