Adam's Apples

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.