Today is the first day of spring and we are smack dab in the middle of March, my least favorite month for fruit. I’m generally tired of citrus by this point (although Pixie and Shasta tangerines can still catch my eye here and there) and the lovely berries are just beginning to show up but still tend to be hit or miss on flavor. So when I spotted a new apple in the grocery store this last week, I was truly puzzled. I mean to my mind, apples generally fall in to autumn territory and maybe a touch of winter, but that’s it. How naive, Miss Maven. How naive.

So I’m walking through one of the 8 or 20 grocery stores I generally visit and there she was, the Lady Alice apple just innocently tucked in next to the common Fuji and Granny Smiths. I wasn’t looking for apples but I guess I can’t help myself at this point. My eye went right to this bright yellow beauty with pretty red blush. What in the world? I greedily grabbed a whole bag full – as if someone was going to pop up and swipe this mirage of fruit right out from under me. Oddly, everyone else just seemed to shop like normal. Could I possibly be the only one who could see the pot of gold at the end of this rainbow? How lucky!

It turns out this apple is a sweet, crunchy and juicy delight. Rainier Fruit Company and Adam, my new favorite apple expert over at Adam’s Apples, both explain how this is an apple that truly is designed for March and not a result of some weird storing shenanigans that give us fruit out of season. So if you spot them, now is the time! Go go go. I hear there is a limited supply that doesn’t last long.

Lady Alice Apples

APPEARANCE Rating:

Creamy yellow, slightly statuesque apple with variegated red and peach coloring. White flesh that didn’t brown the entire time I shot photos (unusual).

AROMA Rating:

Faint grassy smell.

TEXTURE Rating:

Crispy and juicy with a super satisfying bite (not airy like Fujis).

TASTE Rating:

Bright, sweet apple flavor, rich in honey with a little hint of tartness.

OVERALL Overall Rating:

This isn’t a complicated apple with lots of nuance, but it is sweet and refreshing with out being super sweet. The texture is fantastic like so many of the new varieties. And since it is one of the few varieties looking good in the middle of spring, I highly recommend it.

FRUIT Apple	PEAK Spring	PURCHASED Grocery Store
VARIETY Lady Alice	GROWN Rainier, WA

OTHER NONSENSE

According to this site, of which I have no business knowing the accuracy or not, one reference to Lady Alice in history revolves around Ms. Alice Lisle, who was tried for treason in 1685. Apparently she was involved in some sort of rebellion against King James II and he went on an aggressive tirade known as the Bloody Assizes, a series of court hearings where the elderly and respected Lady Alice was the first to be tried. I bring this up only so that we can all be thankful that the word “assizes” did not survive in to our current vocabulary, because no matter how I pronounce that word and particularly that phrase, it seems grossly inappropriate.