September is apple time in Taiwan. This may sound like strange news coming from a sub-tropical island, but the high mountains that occupy 80 per cent of Taiwan's area create many microclimates: pockets of flat or gently sloping land that are profitably given over to fruits usually associated with more temperate climates.
I had only been living here a few months when I discovered these exquisite mountain apples. Much smaller than their imported commercial cousins, they have a sweetness, yet also a sharpness, of taste that carries with it the genuine buoyancy and brio of fresh mountain air.
I buy them in the autumn from the back of a farmer's truck - the same way you get Taiwanese strawberries in February, all over Taipei. The apples were always harder to find than the strawberries, but now I have discovered a more reliable source: my local health-food store.
This opened a couple of years ago to what I suspected was a generally sceptical public. Its shelves were stocked with common vegetables at uncommonly high prices, plus enormous amounts of pills, lotions, dietary supplements and herbal extracts guaranteed, I used to joke, to make you live forever.
But few customers were in evidence. This will never catch on here, I thought. The Taiwanese - while often easy victims of the sales pitch and susceptible to buying anything with a hint of increased social status - remain faithful to their traditional open-air markets and 24-hour supermarkets. Recently, however, I walked into the same store in mid-morning to find it overflowing with customers. They were lined up at the old-fashioned sales counter with arms full of vitamin-rich cabbages and pesticide-free carrots, not to mention a good selection of the lotions and potions as well.
And there in a corner smiled a pile of my ruddy-cheeked mountain apples. 'They're delicious,' said the young female assistant, using one of the first English words Taiwanese learn, and which they seem to particularly enjoy pronouncing. I bought a kilo, shuddering only slightly at the price. And when I got home I consumed them until the juice ran down my chin.