Sunday, April 29, 2018

A dab of mustard

Pinata apple with jar of mustard

Imagine my surprise to find mustard in my apple last week.

Not the actual golden brown spicy stuff, but rather its distinctive tang. Minus the heat.

Saturday, April 28, 2018

Calm before the bloom

Bare apple trees
Not a bud has burst earlier today at Huchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts.

Saturday, April 21, 2018

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Five apple names with stories to tell

I love how every apple has a story. Sometimes the stories come with titles, in the names of the apples.

Here are five of them.

Nodhead. This amiable old-style apple with cider and watermelon notes originated in Hollis, New Hampshire, in the eighteenth century.

A local historical website records that the apple, developed by by Samuel Jewett, "was locally known as Nod-head from the fact that Jewett nodded his head when walking or talking."

None other than Jewett's several-times great grandson has chimed in on this story. The apple is also known as Jewett's Red.

Empire. What could possibly be the significance of the name "Empire" for this product of New York State's famous fruit-breeding program?

This relatively modern variety dates from a time when New York named its apples for upstate towns (Lodi, Cortland) or pomologists (Macoun). I turn to this McIntosh x Red Delicious cross in the spring.

Cox's Orange Pippin. Richard Cox was a brewer living west of London when he brought this marvelous variety into the world around 1830.

The name is a typical quotidian descriptive name (yes, a pippin with an orange tint from Mr. Cox) of the Victorian era. It nonetheless achieves a sort of poetry while at the same time sounding like a patent medicine.

EverCrisp. Don't be lulled by the markety modern syntax for this very crisp keeper apple. This name is weaponized to take down the mighty HoneyCrisp.

EverCrisp invokes HoneyCrisp (both three syllables, ending with "Crisp," identically inflected), and then tops it by asserting the value of its keeping qualities, a HoneyCrisp weakness.

This is a technique in advertising know as positioning, in which one product seeks to define itself by redefining its competitor.

Hubbardston Nonesuch. I have already waxed rhapsodic about this marvelous moniker, which dates from Age of Bombastic Apple Names. See also Nonpareil and Westfield Seek-No-Further, but Hubbardston is so great to say aloud.

The Hubbardston originated in the Massachusetts town of that name. It's a pleasant snack, balanced and with interesting, almost nutty, flavors.

The best part? You could do this for scores, if not hundreds, of apples.

Saturday, April 7, 2018

The Apple Snob

As the saying goes: blogging = focus + voice.

I've nailed the focus bit. But sometimes I fret about the voice.

Meet the Apple Snob, an online persona I have played with, though only in my head.

Dashing fellow with a bicycle
Tally ho!

Because who does not like a little knowing snark with their fruit?