Thursday, May 29, 2014

Lemonade (Honeymoon) *

New Zealand is an apple-breeding powerhouse. When its harvest arrives here this time of year I have come to hope (but not expect) to find some apple that is wholly new to me.

Today I am pleased to taste Lemonade, the first of two new Kiwi apples that I found at a specialty market on my way to work Tuesday morning.

Lemonade is a strikingly elongated lemon yellow with green highlights.

It is large and without ribbing, though the base is crowned with a circle of bumps.

Some samples have a faint orange-pink blush over as much as a fifth or so of the peel. The shiny surface of this fruit is articulated into shallow bumps and ridges that further suggest the glossy rind of a lemon.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Mini apple orchards grow in urban backyards

Fueled by dwarf rootstocks and a growing interest in apples, urban and suburban gardeners are increasingly planting apple trees in their backyards, according to a story published yesterday in the Boston Globe.

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Stormy weather

Storm clouds gather behind nascent apples earlier today at Nagog Hill Farm in Littleton.

Monday, May 12, 2014

The problem of pesticides

In what has become a painful annual ritual, the Environmental Working Group last month again named apples as the produce most tainted with chemicals, the worst of of its "Dirty Dozen."

The group also made a splash this spring with a report that 80% of American apples are "coated" with a chemical banned in Europe, effectively shutting down the export market.

Farmers use pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, fertilizers, and preservatives to deliver unblemished fresh-tasting apples to market.
Consumers for the most part demand the quality that these chemicals deliver.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Spring unfolds

An apple branch tip makes this reply to sun and rain in Arlington, Mass., earlier today.

Here are the earlier parts of this series: 1 2 3