Adam's Apples

LOVE THE ONES YOU'RE WITH Lemonade , above, is a right good apple, well balanced and eminently worth choosing . But the main reason I was glad to see this variety last month is geographic. My Lemonades grew in New Zealand and were picked in the spring. They are half a year fresher than the other apples in stores today. And, you can taste it.

There's really no rationale for comparing these two sturdy varieties except that I am apt to turn to them to brighten up the apple-bleak springtime. Though the two apples were developed in New Zealand, today's samples grew in the U.S., almost certainly in Washington state. In better times fresh versions of these apples harvested in the southern hemisphere in March or April would be entering American supermarkets.

Jazz, at left, has the same parents as Kanzi. Today's match pits Jazz (left), a Gala x Braeburn cross, against Kanzi , a, um, Gala x Braeburn cross. So strap yourself in for some real sibling rivalry.

Despite the return of local apples last week, July was a month when I ate a lot of imports from the southern hemisphere . As it turns out, many of the apples that drew me last month—16 of them—were offspring of Gala and Braeburn, two New Zealand varieties that have become supermarket staples here in the States. Gala Braeburn (Yes, I am keeping track this year.) Maybe you've been making similar choices. Here are mine. Jazz , one of my favorites of the new breeds, is a Braeburn x Royal Gala cross. This means Royal Gala (a variant of Gala ) pollinated Braeburn. Envy on the other hand is a Royal G

The cupboard is bare at Nagog Hill Orchard. The scene was earlier today. Luckily I'd brought along a Jazz apple from New Zealand.

The blush on this attractive, medium-large apple is saturated over about half the otherwise green-yellow surface and is streaky or blotchy elsewhere.  The fruit is conical and decorated with small light lenticels in a bottom-to-top pattern: many clustered together it the bottom but few at the top. The effect is as if they are radiating or rising from the base like bubbles in a champagne glass. The unbroken fruit is reasonably firm and has only a very faint sweet aroma.