All About Apples

RubyFrost is an ideal apple for baking seasonal dishes. It has the perfect balance between sweet and tart flavors with deep flavor and a hearty crunch. It is slow to brown, making it a great choice for salads and charcuterie boards.

Flavor so good, it’s Luda! A modern apple with outrageous crunch and juicy, tropical flavor that’s been compared to Juicy Fruit gum. Enjoy fresh or baked into a delicious pie.

A cross between Honeycrisp and Fuji, Summerset delivers a satisfying crunch with a balanced sweet-tangy flavor. Juicy and crisp, it’s perfect for fresh eating—but also a baker’s dream. Its firm texture holds up beautifully in pies, crisps, and tarts.

A crisp, juicy apple with a refreshing balance of sweet and tang. Its satisfying crunch makes it a favorite during the early apple harvest season.

Developed by Cornell University and released to the public in 2018, Snapdragons have made a splash in the apple market thanks to its popular snappy texture (thanks to one of it’s parents being Honeycrisp) and it’s sweet flavor. Snapdragons have a very sweet yet subtly tart flavor with undertones of melon, vanilla, and spices.

Before there was Honeycrisp, there was Jonagold. A cross between Jonathan and Golden Delicious, developed by Cornell in 1953. Crisp and bursting with a juicy, honeyed flavor.

An early-season apple, with a sweet, vinous flavor. Best-suited for fresh-eating soon after harvest. They also make good applesauce!

Legendary California plant-breeder Albert Etter created this stunning variety in the 40’s, by crossing modern strains with red-fleshed wild apples from Kazakhstan. The resulting fruit has striking pink flesh, crisp yet juicy, with a taste reminiscent of sweet-tarts.

One of the best summer apples! Williams Pride bursts with tartness and complexity–filled with notes of spice and pear. The crispy, creamy flesh stays firm for several weeks after picking.

Earligolds are a tart and crisp late-summer treat. Enjoy them fresh from the tree, incorporate them into a refreshing salad, or get a jump on your fall baking. They’re not great for storage, so enjoy them when in season.

A great early summer apple with canary yellow skin, often with a blush. Excellent for eating fresh.

Released in 2017 by the Midwest Apple Improvement Association, this variety is a cross between a Honeycrisp and Fuji. The fruit is blushed red over a cream background. Very sweet, yet mildly tart with a crisp texture and a wonderful crunch. Evercrisp is excellent for fresh eating but stays crisp in storage for up to 6 months.

Ripening Mid October in the Hudson Valley, Enterprise is a medium-large glossy apple that is fully red. The skin is quite thick, so the apple is better served peeled. The flesh is creamy, firm, and crisp with a flavor similar to Idared. This apple will keep well in storage for up to six months, during which its flavor will intensify slightly.

The parentage of Enterprise includes, McIntosh, Golden Delicious, and the crabapple Malus floribunda, which imparts disease resistant making this variety well suited to organic cultivation. This apple was released in 1993.

King David is a medium-sized, late-season apple with a pale green skin that is overlaid with a deep dark wine-red. For best flavor, fruit should be harvested as soon as it is fully colored, but if left on the tree the apples will hang into the winter and the color will continue to deepen until it is almost black. The flesh is yellowish; its intensely tart flavor explodes with spice, citrus, and tropical notes that are deepened by caramelized sugars. The intensity can be a bit of a shock. It will store well for about two months, and will make an amazing pie, sauce, or cider.

Discovered on a fencerow on the Arkansas farm of Ben Frost in 1893, King David is thought to be a cross of Jonathan and either Arkansas Black or Winesap. It was introduced to the commercial market by Stark Bros. in 1902.

The perfect “lunchbox” apple. These little beauties are sweet and crunchy with a unique nutty flavor. Developed by the University of Minnesota in 1946, they prove that size isn’t everything, especially when it comes to taste!

Ambrosia apples are a chance seedling discovered in the 1990s in the orchard of Wilfrid and Sally Mennell in British Columbia. They are a newer variety, but are quickly gaining popularity around the world.

Golden hued with a pink blush, Ambrosia apples are deliciously sweet, mildly aromatic, and when perfectly ripe possess floral notes similar to wildflower honey. Ambrosia is low in acid and slow to oxidize, meaning it will brown slower making a great choice for salads or fruit boards.

A classic American variety, and widely regarded as one of the best flavoured with a good sweet/sharp balance.

An early season apple with a firm, cream-colored flesh, Golden Supreme has a pleasant but mild sweet-tart flavor. This juicy all-purpose apple lends itself to everything from fresh-eating to cider-making and drying. Golden Supreme was discovered as a chance seedling in West Virginia. One of its parents is Golden Delicious.

Thought to be a cross between Golden Delicious and Newtown Pippin, Ginger Gold shows a good balanced flavor and crisp texture, making it one of our highest quality summer apples. Great for salads and fresh eating; it is slow to brown.

One of our all-time favorite varieties, with a perfectly balanced sweet/tart flavor and texture that rivals or beats honeycrisp, at least when first picked. A smaller apple, and very grower friendly, Pixie Crunch does not keep as well in storage, but always sells out for us long before that’s a problem. Developed at Rutgers University in 1971.

Introduced by the university of Minnesota in 1977, Sweet Sixteen is a mid-season apple with super-sweet, juicy flesh reminiscent of Honeycrisp, and hints of sugar cane and cherry soda.

A cross between Gala and Florina from Angers, France, in 1985. Arguably superior tart flavor and firmness to either of its parents.

Florina which is also called Querina, is a French cultivar that combines the traits of the Jonathan, Golden Delicious and Rome Beauty apples: a mild, sweet and aromatic candied flavor, sometimes reminiscent of bubble gum. It was developed in Angers, France by the “Station de Recherches d’Arboriculture Fruitiere,” in the 1980’s, though its ancestry is entirely American.

A modern, disease resistant apple suited to organic production, Topaz has been described as tasting like a SweeTart candy! Crisp, very tart and pretty, with a long storage life. A cross between two Czech variety apples, the Vanda and Rubin, the Topaz apple was developed in the 1990’s at The Institute of Experimental Botany in the Czech Republic.

One of the most exciting new varieties we’ve planted, Crimson Crisp is sweet with hints of melon, orange and spice. It stores exceptionally well, and along with several other varieties from the Perdue, Rutgers, and the University of Illinois cooperative plant breeding program, immune to some of the pests and diseases that plague other apples, making it one of the best apples to grow organically. New Jersey, 1971.

Shizuka’s flavor and texture are reminiscent to its “sister apple” Mutsu, but sweeter, with an almost buttery taste. Developed in Japan as a Golden Delicious cross in the early 20th century.

A Golden Delicious x Cox Orange Pippin cross from the New Jersey Apple Breeding Program, selected in 1963. Excellent flavor, disease resistant, and good storage qualities.

Similar to Winesap in flavor and texture, Winecrisp is a new variety developed by the Perdue/Rutgers/Illinois breeding program in 1990 for its genetic resistance to apple scab.

A Macoun cross with the characteristic tart flavor and crisp flesh of its parent. Developed in 1955 by the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station to be immune to apple scab, it can be as flavorful if not superior to Macoun. A favorite for fresh eating, sweet and hard cider.

Introduced by the University of Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station in 1942; tart and juicy with the characteristic aroma of its parent, Jonathan. Idared is an unparalleled apple for pies, sauce and baking whole, as its flavor is not diminished by cooking.

Dr. Thomas Ashmead discovered this variety growing in his Gloucester England garden around 1700. Sharp, crisp and dense with a kaleidoscope of flavors from champagne and pineapple to orange blossoms. A shy bearer and one of the best varieties for hard cider. Regularly reaches 18% sugar.

Believed to be the oldest American apple, from Roxbury Massachusetts, part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony southwest of Boston, mid-1600s. It may not be the prettiest; its skin is mud-green, flecked with brown russet spots. But its high sugar and acidity make it ideal for hard cider. Containing upwards of 15% sugar, fermenting to a potent 8% alcohol.

A cultivar originating in East Bloomfield, New York around 1800. Hints of pear and strawberry and an initial tartness that broadens. Highly aromatic, tart, firm and large fruit with great storage potential. Unsurpassed for baking and cider-making (both hard and sweet). The saying goes “when baking pie, use a spy.”

A chance seedling discovered in New York City around 1750, growing along the banks of the Newtown Creek, which separates the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. Also known as Albemarle Pippin, it was once one of the most commonly grown (and exported) apples in the US. Excellent storage, a unique aroma and flavor and excellent potential as cider apple.

Introduced by the University of Minnesota Fruit Breeding Program in 1978, Keepsake is very hard and crisp with yellow flesh and an exotic spicy, almost savory flavor. Good for fresh eating and cooking. The fruit will store for 6 months. Tree is of medium vigor and easy to manage.

J.H. Kidd of New Zealand developed this highly aromatic apple in 1924 by cross-breeding Cox’s Orange Pippin with Delicious. In turn, Kidd bred his “Orange Red” with Golden Delicious to create the Gala variety we know and love. Posses the unique flavor and aroma of Cox, but harvests later and, retaining its crisp texture longer in storage.

Considered by many to be one of the finest American apples for hard cider making, Golden Russet possesses delicate tannins and high sugar content, with firm flesh and a dry bright, pineappley taste. It is also one of the most delicious russet (rough-skinned) apples for fresh eating. Discovered as a seedling in New York c. 1845, likely of English Russet parentage.

The Esopus Spitzenburg was discovered in Ulster County, New York, sometime before the American Revolution, but gained fame in 1790 when Thomas Jefferson said it was his favorite apple. Some of our farm’s Spitzenberg trees came from his Monticello estate! Spitzenberg rivals Honeycrisp in taste tests, is an exceptional cider apple, and regularly reaches 18% sugar in our orchard.

Hints of cherry and anise in this exceptionally flavored English apple, first grown in 1830, at Colnbrook in Buckinghamshire, England

Excellent tart flavor and unique texture not unlike a pear make Calville Blanc the preferred apple for tarte aux pommes in France. It has a unique knobby, vaguely square shape, and possesses an unusually high amount of vitamin C. First discovered in France or maybe Germany, unknown date; first recorded in 1598.

An heirloom apple with a cult following- this tart variety originating in Kansas in 1866, and lives up to its name with a vinous, spritely flavor. Good keeping apple with crisp, dense and juicy flesh.

Crunchy, sweet, with the characteristic wine-like flavor of the McIntosh. Introduced in 1936 from the Federal Agriculture Research Station in Summerland, British Columbia, the ‘Spartan’ is notable for being the first new breed of apple produced from a formal scientific breeding program. Sometimes sold as “Aceymac.”

A workhorse processing apple discovered as a chance seedling in Rome, Ohio, 1817. This variety’s ease of growing, balanced flavor and predictable size have made it one of the most popular apples for processing. Not bad eating when picked from the tree and enjoyed out of hand, the Rome is best for apple sauce and pies.

The story of Red Delicious can be seen as a parable for modern food production. Discovered in 1875 as a chance seedling growing in Iowa, the original “Hawkeye” or “Delicious” apple did in fact have a delicious flavor. But as breeders selected strains that were redder, more uniform in shape, and yielded more apples per tree, that deliciousness was lost, and the bland variety we know today was born. Nonetheless, when picked ripe, Red Delicious still has echoes of the mild sweet flavor and aroma of its ancestry.

Not to be confused with the diminutive lady apple, Pink Lady is a wonderfully crisp, tart, and sweet late-season apple that stores exceptionally well. Bred at the Western Australia Department of Agriculture in 1973.

One of the tartest apples we grow, folks are always surprised when they first taste a fully-ripened Granny Smith from a Northeast apple orchard. They are sour, juicy, and quite different from common supermarket Granny Smith. This Australian variety was first propagated by English emigré Maria Ann Smith, in her orchard in 1868. Here, our cooler weather gives the Granny Smith a unique pinkish blush.

A large, green apple with crisp juicy flesh great for eating and sauce. A cross between Golden Delicious and the Indo variety, it was developed in Japan in 1948 and named after the Mutsu province, but it is often rebranded as “Crispin” in US supermarkets. Impressive for its uncommon size, texture, and sweet-sharp honeyed flavor.