Weekly Challenge: Apple Harvest Time in New England

Corn has peaked in New England (it was all good!). Tomatoes were socked hard by blight. So now we're turning to apples, finally ripening after a solid growing season of plentiful moisture and well-timed sun. We say BRING IT ON. See if you'd be the apple of your English teacher's eye by identifying all the words correctly in this week's list.

1. costard:

(a) a basket used for collecting apples;

(b) any of several large English cooking apples;

(c) a thick creamy concoction made with apples and eggs;

(d) the last variety of apples that ripen in New England before the massacre of the first hard freeze.

2. apple butter:

(a) a thick brown spread made by cooking apples with sugar and spices usually in cider;

(b) a thick brown spread made by cooking apples with milk and whey until thick and creamy;

(c) a relish or dessert made of apples stewed to a pulp and sweetened;

(d) butter from cows raised on dried apple feed.

3. Granny Smith:

(a) an Australian apple cultivator named Maria Ann Smith;

(b) the Swedish inventor of apple pie;

(c) Johnny Appleseed's maternal grandmother;

(d) a nymph in classical mythology who guards with the aid of a dragon a garden in which golden apples grow.

4. hard cider:

(a) fermented apple juice;

(b) frozen apple juice;

(c) powdered apple juice;

(d) sweetened apple juice.

5. pomaceous:

(a) of or relating to pomegranates;

(b) a deep-dish spiced apple dessert sweetened with sugar, molasses, or maple syrup and covered with a rich crust;

(c) of or relating to apples;

(d) of or relating to pom-poms.

6. verjuice:

(a) a juicy apple having red skin and crisp mildly tart white flesh;

(b) apple wine;

(c) the thickened liquid found seeping from the cracks and crevices of a traditional wooden apple press, noted for its intense sweet flavor;

(d) the sour juice of crab apples or of unripe fruit (as grapes or apples).

7. codling:

(a) a small, immature apple;

(b) a small, immature apple tree;

(c) windfallen apples;

(d) the practice of picking deformed apples early in order to enable remaining apples on the tree to prosper.

8. pippin:

(a) a deep-dish spiced apple dessert sweetened with sugar, molasses, or maple syrup and covered with a rich crust;

(b) a crisp tart apple having usually yellow or greenish-yellow skin strongly flushed with red and used especially for cooking;

(c) a caramelized apple tart that is baked with pastry on top and then inverted for serving;

(d) the son of William Tell. Tell was the heroic archer in Swiss legend, who complied with an order to shoot an apple off his son's head.

9. Atalanta:

(a) Roman goddess of apples;

(b) a medium-sized red-skinned apple;

(c) a fleet-footed huntress in Greek mythology who challenges her suitors to a race and is defeated by Hippomenes when she stops to pick up three golden apples he has dropped;

(d) answer to the question, "Where's America's busiest airport?"

10. ab ovo usque ad mala:

(a) from egg to apples;

(b) from soup to nuts;

(c) from beginning to end;

(d) all the above.

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1:b 2:a 3:a 4:a 5:c 6:d 7:a 8:b 9:c 10:d

Rate Yourself. You get:

1 to 2 correct: A pie in your face.

3 to 5 correct: Just windfalls.

6 to 7 correct: A plastic bag of store-bought generics.

8 to 9 correct: A bag of yesterday's macs from the orchard.

All 10 correct: A heaping bushel of Cortlands plucked from lush trees not five minutes ago.