Apples! Again!

Last year I wrote about the varieties of apples we were getting, and you can read about here. This may turn into an annual thing.

This year as I was unloading the farm box, I noticed a yellowish apple with brown speckles, something you may see on a dusty tree living on a dusty ranch-type road. It had a sticker:

Ashmead's Kernel? I know kernels from linear algebra, but how do these words even make sense together? I had never heard of such a thing. I peeled the sticker off and took a big bite.

YES. An all-caps single word answer to the initial experience of the Ashmead's Kernel. The body was crisp, the meat tangy and sweet, with a tart ending that left you both thirsty and quenched. My my my, such a drab facade hiding such a wonderful thing.

The Ashemad's Kernel was first recorded in the UK back in the early 1700s, and is one of the very few British varieties that thrive in the US as well.

This year we haven't had the 18 separate varieties over two months like last year, but there have been a whole slew of new apples that, again, I had never ever heard of. For example:

The Northern Spy was developed in the 1840s near Rochester, NY. Our specimen was good, tart and sweet, but less transcendental that the Ashmead's Kernel, but the nearly mushy flesh may have played into that.

Another heretofore unknown to me apple variety:

The White Winter Pearmain. This apple was too mushy to get a full idea of how good it could be. The pearmain apple is from the UK originally, but this yellow one was only slightly more interesting than the yellow delicious you can find in supermarkets.

We also got a bag of the tiny and awesome Crimson Golds that we used to saute on a smoking pan with brandy and maple syrup for a pork garnish:

This year we also got a pair of Pink Pearls, but the pictures didn't come out so well. the cool thing with them is that the flesh has a pink band between the skin and the white flesh around the core. The flavor was as close to sweet tarts I've found in the apple world.

Also, I lined up one box's apple contents up like last year for a photo shoot. In this one particular box, we got seven different varieties with two each. The Arkansas Black's this year have been great, as have the Mutsu and the Calville Blancs.

Those Calville Blancs have been crisp and juicy, so I've been able to place the flavor, which last year it was tough because they were so mushy. Their flavor resembles lychees, which was a pleasant surprise. With each week the Ashmead's Kernels lose a bit of their incredible-ness, a reality I try to ignore.

APPLES!