Red Delicious apple

Russets for Walking and Cider

AN APPLE is the perfect walking companion, appealing to all the senses while providing a sweet, healthy energy boost.  An apple…

A Gallery of Growers (and Late-Season Apples)

AN APPLE GROWER is many things: A gardener first and foremost, of course, on a grand scale. An arborist; while most…

Apples Good As Gold

MOST PEOPLE think “red” when they think apple. The vast majority of apples feature the color, after all, and popular cultural…

August Apples

AUGUST APPLES. THE DOUBLE ENTENDRE is intentional. These varieties ripen this month, and they are a robust, impressive bunch. Here are…

30 Shades of Apple

THE TIME FOR PICKING apples fresh off the tree is fast coming to a close. Many New England orchards operate…

Apple Art

APPLES HAVE INSPIRED countless artists over the centuries, attracted by their dazzling colors, interesting shapes, and iconic cultural status. A…

Great October Apples

SOME OF THE BEST APPLES of the New England harvest ripen in October. As days grow shorter and nights get cooler,…

The Most Prolific Apple

ONE OF THE MOST AMAZING things about the apple is how it connects us to our past.  A history book, a…

Apple Growers Face COVID-19

NEW ENGLAND’S FRUIT GROWERS know what it is like to be vulnerable to the forces of nature. Whether it is…

A Tale of Two Delicious Apples

THEY ARE BOTH mostly sweet, conical in shape, late-season apples. Their names are identical except for their predominant coloring. They…

Try Empires in Apple-Pear Cobbler with Cheddar

WITH THE ARRIVAL of classic mid- to late-season apples like Cortland, Macoun, and McIntosh, and newcomers like Gala, Honeycrisp, and…

Empire apples on the tree at Ragged Hill Orchard, West Brookfield, Massachusetts. (Russell Steven Powell photo)
Mid-season Pleasures: Empire and Spencer

IT TAKES YEARS, sometimes decades, between the time an apple variety is discovered and it becomes available to the public….