Apple Varieties

The Api Etoile or Star Lady, dates back to the early 1600’s in Switzerland. From there it made its way to France in 1628 before crossing the channel into England, where it became extremely popular for its interesting shape. This variety’s unusual oblate or flattened, shape make the fruit resemble a rounded star from the end. Although the fruit produced is small, it is known for its sweet taste, crisp flesh and a beautiful red blush over its light yellow base.

• Uses: Fresh eating
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 5-9
• Attributes: Rare variety

The Arkansas Black is believed to have originated in Arkansas in the 1870’s as a seedling found in a Winesap orchard. This variety thrived in southern orchards until the 1930’s, when a combination of moth infestations and terrible droughts decimated the apple industry in the region. The Arkansas Black produces fruit that varies from dark red to a deep purple, but before you take a bite of this beauty you may want to put it in cold storage. When harvested, the Arkansas Black is extremely hard and very tart, but if given time to mature in cold storage it will reveal a very aromatic, sweet-tart taste with a crisp, fine-grained texture. Although first popular as a cooking and baking apple, this variety is slowly making a comeback for use in hard cider blends.

• Uses: Cider, baking, cooking and fresh eating (after proper storage)
• Harvest: Very late
• Zones: 5-10
• Attributes: Excellent storing and scab resistance

Ashmead’s Kernel originated in England in the early 1700’s and has since been known as one of the best fresh eating apples of all-time. Don’t let this variety’s russeting or lop-sided shape deter you, because inside you will find creamy, yellow flesh that is fine-grained, crisp and has a distinct pear-like taste. Although Ashmead’s Kernel can be used for cooking and baking, it is most often used for fresh eating and juice or cider.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider, cooking and baking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 5-9
• Attributes: Excellent storing and scab resistance

The Baldwin apple was discovered as a chance seedling in an orchard in Massachusetts in 1740. This little known variety was initially named Woodpecker by the orchardist who found it because of the numerous woodpeckers visiting this tree. However, this variety was later made popular by its namesake, Colonel Loammi Baldwin, who was responsible for its propagation and introduction into other parts of New England. The Baldwin, with its sweet, balanced flavor and crisp flesh, held its popularity as a fresh eating apple until the birth of the Jonathan in the late 1700’s, which pushed the Baldwin into the kitchen. Today the Baldwin is revered for its use as an outstanding base cider for complex blending.

• Uses: Hard cider, cooking, baking and fresh eating
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 4-10
• Attributes: Excellent base cider and moderate scab resistance

Burford’s Red Flesh is one of the many varieties pioneered by seventh-generation orchardist Tom Burford of Virginia. This chance seedling was found at the home of Patrick Henry’s mother in Amherst County, Virginia. Although this small apple is crisp and tart, it lacks the balance of fresh eating varieties, which makes this variety most useful in the kitchen. Burford’s Red Flesh is often used as a small portion of sauces, chutneys and ciders to give a magnificent pink blush to the final product.

• Uses: cider, cooking, baking and sauce
• Harvest: Midseason
• Zones: 5-9
• Attributes: Unusual red flesh

Calville Blanc is a gourmet culinary apple first recorded in France in 1598, and still remains a Parisian culinary favorite today. In fact, this variety was so iconic that Monet included it in his 1879 painting “Still Life Apples and Grapes.” This yellow skin variety with red blush has sweet and flavorful flesh with a banana-like aroma, but although the scent is alluring, it is best used as a cooking or baking apple. In addition to its baking excellence, Calville Blanc is known to contain more Vitamin C than an orange.

• Uses: Baking and cooking
• Harvest: Very late
• Zones: 5-9
• Attributes: Possibly the best baking apple available

Campfield has been a cider variety from the very beginning. Although first recorded in William Coxe’s 1817 book, “A View of the Cultivation of Fruit Trees,” it is believed that this variety may have originated in the Newark, New Jersey area in the early 1800’s. In Coxe’s book, he described the Campfield as a small red apple with greenish-yellow dots that was “strong and highly flavored.” Historically, the Campfield has been blended with equal proportions of Harrison apples to create a high quality hard cider.

• Uses: Hard cider and juice
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 4-9
• Attributes: Excellent cider variety, excellent storage and cold hardy

Although first recorded in England in 1613, the origin of Court Pendu Plat is ambiguous at best. The uncertain origins of this variety is partially due to another commonly confused ancient variety known as Court Pendu Gris, which appears in accounts of Normandy abbeys of the early 15th century. The Court Pendu Plat is known for its rich, fruity flavor and strong pineapple-like acidity. For centuries, this variety has been valued for its outstanding dessert quality and vivid vermillion blush.

• Uses: Fresh eating and cider
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 4-9
• Attributes: Unusual ancient history and high dessert quality

The Cox Orange Pippin is one of the most widely recognizable heirloom apple varieties and for good reason; this is an apple to which all other apples are compared. Although its yellow skin with beautiful orange-red blush is the first thing you notice, it won’t be the only thing you remember. It’s crisp, yellow flesh releases an aromatic sweetness that has been said to have hints of orange and mango flavors. Like many heirloom varieties, the Cox Orange Pippin is believed to have been a chance seedling. This particular seedling was found in a Ribston Pippin orchard in Buckinghamshire, England in 1825. This medium-sized apple is best when eaten fresh or given a short time in cold storage, but can also be used for cooking, baking and cider making.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cooking, baking and cider
• Harvest: Midseason
• Zones: 4-10
• Attributes: Outstanding complexity and cold hardy

The Crown Prince Rudolf apple is believed to the oldest known Styrian apple variety. Styria is the state in southeastern Austria from which the Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary originally hailed. This variety was first introduced at the World Exhibition of 1873 in the Austria-Hungarian capital of Vienna, just sixteen years before Prince Rudolf’s death. This variety’s cream-colored flesh is said to be sweet and mildly spicy. Although it can be used for baking and cider making, it is best known for its high dessert quality and excellent storage capabilities.

• Uses: Fresh eating, baking and cider
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 5-9
• Attributes: Excellent storage

The D’Arcy Spice originated in a garden at Tolleshunt D’Arcy, Essex in 1785. Great flavor in a plain package. Yellowish-green skin, flushed with russet patches surrounds fine, firm crisp flesh with subtle spicy “nutmeg” flavor. Russet aficionados often enjoy the texture of D’Arcy Spice. One of the favorites at our apple tastings.

• Uses: Fresh eating
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 5-9
• Attributes: Excellent fresh eating

Originally Duchess of Oldenberg was planted extensively wherever growers needed extreme hardiness. Fruit medium to large; color pale yellow covered with splashes and stripes of pinkish red. Excellent flavor with tart overtones. Very good for cooking. Duchess is one of the best pie apples for coldest climates. Scab resistant.

• Uses: Fresh eating and cooking
• Harvest: Very early
• Zones: 3-9
• Attributes: Very cold hardy and scab resistance

The Egremont Russet is prized as the most delicious of the English russets. Rich, nutty, distinctive flesh with a perfect balance of sweet and sharp. Skin is a muted gold flecked with yellow and nearly covered with russet. A wonderful component in salads and a popular partner for cheese. Tree is upright growing and a regular cropper.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and cooking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 4-9
• Attributes: Coldy hardy and regular cropping

The Empire is the descendant of the McIntosh and the Red Delicious varieties and takes the best from both to provide an apple with better color and flavor. Dark red with heavy, waxy bloom and crisp, juicy flesh with some aromatic quality. They make a unique, rosy applesauce. They often lose their shape quickly when baked. Best for fresh eating. Fruit hangs on tree longer than McIntosh. Very consistent annual producer.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider, cooking and baking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 5-9
• Attributes: Consistent annual producer

Originally from Minnesota, this large apple is extremely hardy. The crisp, juicy, sweet, greenish-white flesh is not flat or mealy. Flame orange striped skin over a rich yellow undercover. It is long keeping and flavorful. The aroma often fills the room when left out on the counter for the day. Has shown some resistance to cedar-apple rust and is an excellent keeper.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and cooking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 3-9
• Attributes: Extremely cold hardy and excellent storage quality

Freedom is aptly named for its resistance to fire blight, mildew, cedar-apple rust, scab and other diseases. Medium to large round bright red fruit with almost invisible yellow background. Crisp, juicy, medium-coarse flesh. Vigorous, spreading tree. Fruit stores until January. Great for fresh eating, cider and cooking.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and cooking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 4-9
• Attributes: Extremely disease resistant and excellent storage quality

A grandchild of Cox’s Orange Pippin, with some of the aromatic qualities of the famous apple, but very crisp and sweet without the tang of Cox. Heavy red striping over golden skin, a beautiful apple. Precocious bearer.

• Uses: Fresh eating and cooking
• Harvest: Midseason
• Zones: 4-10
• Attributes: Early bearer

A customer, named Mr. Gernes, of our supplier, Trees of Antiquity, discovered this gorgeous apple on the Spitzenburg branch of a 3-in-1 tree. This is a truly unique naturally occurring mutation. Glossy deep red skin encloses firm yellow flesh. Good flavor and an excellent keeper. Heat resistant.

• Uses: Fresh eating
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 5-10
• Attributes: Excellent storage quality

Recently home gardens and small orchards have renewed interest in the Golden Russet for its distinctive appearance and intense flavor. The “champagne” of old-time cider apples, also delicious for eating and drying. Grey-green to golden bronze with a coppery orange cheek; heavily splotched with light brown russet. Crisp, highly flavored, fine-textured, yellow flesh makes very sugary juice. They are high in both sugar, acid and tannins, which make them a good pair with almost any apple for eating, cooking or cider. Shows some resistance to scab and cedar apple rust.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and cooking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 4-10
• Attributes: “Champagne” of cider apples and complex flavor

The Gravenstein needs no introduction in Northern California where it has long been the premium variety. Fruit medium to large, skin thin, tender, greenish-yellow with broken stripes of red. Flesh firm, crisp, juicy, tart. Good for eating fresh, and one of the best apples for pies, sauce and juice. A few apple varieties for pollination are the Red Astrachan and/or the Jonathan. Triploid.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and cooking
• Harvest: Early
• Zones: 6-10
• Attributes: Great cooking apple

The Grimes Golden was found at a cider mill and nursery established by John Chapman back in the early 1800’s. Rich, spicy, tangy, sweet flavor that’s crisp and sharp. Simply unforgettable in a simple light yellow flesh. More complex flavor than its offspring Golden Delicious. Direct marketers seek out this fruit due to its superior dessert quality. Not as common as it once was, but you will still find it here and there, and is definitely one to try. Excellent pollinizer with a long bloom period. Best grown in warmer climates.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and cooking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 5-10
• Attributes: Excellent pollinizer

If you want a large, crisp, dense, juicy, sweet, vinous, aromatic very late apple the Hauer Pippin is the tree to plant. This apple will keep practically forever either on the tree or off. Green with an orange blush and white spots. Great multi-purpose apple, best as a dessert apple, keeps flavor and shape when cooked also juicy with sharpness for well-balanced cider. Still grown commercially in Watsonville, CA. Many customers have noted resistant to coddling moth and scab.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and cooking
• Harvest: Very Late
• Zones: 5-10
• Attributes: Good storage quality and scab resistant

Discovered by chance in 1918. Late dessert apple thought to be progeny of Cox Orange Pippin. Large fruit is highly aromatic with a flavor of Cox and good sugar acid balance with a firm, juicy, creamy flesh. Trees are vigorous with a spreading nature and produce many fruiting spurs. Very good for cooking, as well as for fresh eating. Great keeper, able to retain its qualities for a full five to six months after harvest if properly refrigerated. One of the favorites at apple tastings. Triploid.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and cooking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 5-9
• Attributes: Excellent storage quality

The Honeycrisp has been called the King of Apples and has been rated superior to McIntosh and Delicious for fresh eating in taste tests. Skin is mottled red over yellow with very crisp flesh. Good keeper up to five months.

• Uses: Fresh eating
• Harvest: Midseason
• Zones: 3-10
• Attributes: “King of Apples” and excellent storage quality

Perhaps the finest eating russet with crisp, breaking, sugary flesh and a distinct nutty flavor that resembles the Bosc pear. Fruit is conical, elongated, yellow russet. Quite disease resistant to apple scab and other common apple diseases.

• Uses: Fresh eating and cider
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 4-9
• Attributes: Excellent storage quality and scab resistant

A rare apple, can be likened to Golden Russet. This is a little known heirloom apple with an exceptional taste. Generally yellow fruit, lightly overlaid with russet with bronze red cheek in full sun. The Hunt Russet has an acidulous pear-like flavor typical of most russets. A long lived, vigorous tree whose fruit has been known to keep in root cellars over a year. Extremely hardy tree.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and cooking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 3-9
• Attributes: Extremely cold hardy and rare variety

Delicious, rich, pear-like flavor in a thin skinned, light red or red flushed package. Sweet, juicy, cream colored flesh is slightly aromatic. Scab and mildew resistant. Heavy cropper.

• Uses: Fresh eating
• Harvest: Midseason
• Zones: 4-9
• Attributes: Heavy cropper and scab resistant

Thought to be a seedling from a Spitzenburg when it was discovered on a farm in Woodstock, New York back in the late 1700’s. Ours is the original, not the redder hybrid. Naturally a smaller tree, this variety bears young, annually and heavily. Fruit medium, highly colored in sunny climates, striped red in cooler climate with fine-textured, juicy, sprightly subacid flavored flesh. One of the best dessert and pie apples. The fruit freezes well and has a long storage life.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and cooking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 4-9
• Attributes: Excellent storage quality

This Turkish aristocrat is translated to “sweet apple of Sinop” after the Sinop Peninsula in the Black Sea. It’s a tall, narrow and cylindrical with a creamy yellow porcelain-like skin blushed a brilliant red. Uniform shape lends to easy peeling. Crisp, juicy, fine-grained flesh with exquisite flavor. Dwarfish tree grows in narrow, pyramidal form.

• Uses: Fresh eating and cooking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 5-9
• Attributes: Unique shaped apples

Apple crimson over yellow orange ground color. Bitter sharp juice ferments to a distinctively flavored hard cider without blending. These are aromatic with a sweet-acid flavor and a noticeable astringent aftertaste. The full bodied cider has a distinctive rich flavor and is rich bodied. Irregular growth habit. Cider only, except for the very brave.

• Uses: Cider only
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 5-9
• Attributes: Excellent cider variety

Lady Apples are one of the oldest variety known, first cultivated by the Romans. Also known as Pomme d’Api or the Christmas Apple, it was grown by Louis XIII in his orchards. The French loved them and thought they were a royal apple; early American colonists thought of them as a symbol of wealth. Traditionally this apple was used in Christmas decorations and stockings. Small, smooth, creamy yellow fruit with glossy red cheek, borne often in clusters. Crisp, juicy, fine-grained, pure white flesh. This is a highly aromatic variety with much of its fragrance and high quality flavor in its skin; for this reason, it should not be peeled. Makes excellent cider.

• Uses: Fresh eating and cider
• Harvest: Very late
• Zones: 5-10
• Attributes: Extremely old and rare variety

The Macoun (sometimes pronounced “McCowan”) was developed at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, by R. Wellington. Named after Canadian fruit grower W.T. Macoun, it was first introduced in 1923. Macoun is a McIntosh-style apple, widely grown in New England and with arguably the best flavor of its siblings. Dark purplish-red blush over green background. Flesh is white, richly flavored, aromatic with excellent fresh eating quality. It is a sweet refreshing apple with a pronounced flower-like vinous flavor. The flesh has a soft crisp texture and plenty of juice. Unlike most late ripening apples this is at its best when picked and eaten straight from the tree. One of the best midseason apples. Keeps well. Drops quite a few before they are ripe.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and cooking
• Harvest: Midseason
• Zones: 5-10
• Attributes: Superior mcintosh variety

One of the oldest American apples. Coxe wrote in 1817 that Maiden’s Blush was popular in the Philadelphia markets of his day. Beautiful apple of pale thin skinned, lemon-yellow color with crimson blush. Flesh is white, sprightly, crisp and tender with a sharp, acid flavor that mellows when fully ripe. Tree is an excellent grower, comes into bearing young. Dependable producer, long harvest period and displays resistance to fireblight.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and cooking
• Harvest: Early
• Zones: 3-9
• Attributes: Extremely cold hardy and early bearing

Most folks know this apple as the fruit with melting white flesh — firm, tender, juicy, characteristically tart, spicy, aromatic. Fruit beautiful deep red color, size variable. One of the best flavored apples, makes aromatic cider. Precocious, that is, bears fruit when young. Not a good keeper when grown in warmer climates. Subject to early fruit drop, but displays good resistance to cedar apple rust and fireblight.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and cooking
• Harvest: Early
• Zones: 3-10
• Attributes: Extremely cold hardy

This is the official Ohio State apple. Large, fruit with yellowish-green skin streaked dark red with russet spots. The flesh is firm, coarse, sweet, juicy and creamy white. One of the best keepers of all time, whose flavor improves in storage. Very good for pie and baking. This tree is a vigorous, productive, annual bearer that does best in full sun. Displays some resistance to cedar apple rust. Consider Grimes Golden, Liberty and/or White Pearmain for pollination. Triploid.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cooking and baking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 5-9
• Attributes: Excellent storage quality

Firm flesh with superb tartness, this is a great early pie apple. Fruit is very large, with red to striped red skin. Excellent eating quality for a summer apple, very tart and crisp off tree. A vigorous, precocious and productive tree, it is a great disease-resistant apple and an unusually good keeper for an early variety… keeps for three to four months under refrigeration.

• Uses: Fresh eating and baking
• Harvest: Early
• Zones: 6-9
• Attributes: Excellent storage quality

An old Massachusetts apple, called by Hedrick “one of the prized apples of all orchards.” Mother almost disappeared from cultivation in America in the 20th century although widely grown in English fruit gardens. Beautiful apple, good size with thin golden yellow skin covered with deep red marbled and striped with carmine. Fine tender, rich, aromatic flesh. Bunyard, the English pomologist, called it the “flavor of pear drops.” Great fresh off the tree. Shows some resistance to scab.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and cooking
• Harvest: Midseason
• Zones: 5-9
• Attributes: Rare variety and scab resistant

Hard cider apple of the bittersweet type from Normandy. Originated around the commune of Bernay, the site of Benedictine Abbey.

• Uses: Cider making
• Harvest: Midseason
• Zones: 5-9
• Attributes: Adds complexity to cider blends

Newtown Pippin is the oldest commercially grown variety to have been bred in the U.S. The variety sprang from a seed in Newtown, Long Island around 1750. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were two noted admirers of this fine fruit. Skin is green to yellow, often russet, with white dots. Flesh is yellowish or tinged with green, firm, crisp, moderately fine grained and sprightly aromatic with refreshing piney tartness. Some find a light tangerine scent. Does best in warm summer locations. The fruit develops full sugar and rich flavor after a few months of cold storage. A self-fertile variety that also serves as a pollinizer for other apple trees.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cooking and baking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 4-10
• Attributes: Historical significance and excellent pollinizer

Large bright red apple with brilliant red flesh. Flavor is balanced between sweet and tart and sweetens if left on the tree longer. A vigorous growing tree, these apples ripen at the end of September in most locations. Makes great apple pies that resemble pies made from cherries. The most striking fall colors in our nursery!

• Uses: Fresh eating and baking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 5-9
• Attributes: Unique brilliant red flesh

Hubbardston’s Nonsuch originated in Hubbardston, Massachusetts in the early 1800’s. Nonsuch French translation, Nonpareil, meaning “without equal” speaks to this apples high regard. Among the best early to mid-season eating apples. Fruit usually large with clear red skin in our climate, but color is variable. Flesh is white, moderately firm, sweet and rich. Beach describes the apple as “excellent for dessert but less satisfactory for culinary use.” The aromatic yellow flesh is tender, juicy and sweet.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and baking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 4-7

An 1847 letter from Oliver Chapin, writes “the first Northern Spy apple trees were raised from seeds brought from the Northwest part of Connecticut, about the year 1800, by Elijah Taylor. The original tree was set in an orchard by Heman Chapin, and some sprouts were taken from it by Roswell Humphrey, and by him the fruit was first raised… as the original tree died before bearing….” One of the best winter apples in the east, also does well in the Northwest. Large, vigorous tree with attractive, large, thin-skinned fruit. Greenish-yellow skin is flushed and striped scarlet red. Flesh yellow to white, rather firm, very tender, crisp, juicy, slightly sweet and mildly acidic. Rated by the 19th century pomologist Robert Hogg as “a valuable dessert apple.” Stores well. Good for pies or eating out of hand.

• Uses: Fresh eating and baking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 4-9
• Attributes: Excellent storage quality

Thought to be one of Albert Etter’s apples found in an old orchard near Whale Gulch, California by Ram and Marissa Fishman. Distinctive upside down shape, broad base narrow at the stem. Develops a red striped skin when ripe, flesh is deep pink, but varies according to climate. Tart mildly sweet with distinctive aromatic flavor. Must be fully ripe for maximum sweetness and color.

• Uses: Fresh eating and cooking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 6-9
• Attributes: Adds pink blush when cooking

First described in 1845 under the name Ramsdell Sweeting, but 1862 it was officially cataloged as Ramsdell Sweet. A very sweet apple of good size. High quality flesh is tinged with yellow and is fine, firm, tender, juicy and of course, sweet. This is a great dessert apple. Smooth yellow skin overspread with an attractive crimson red. Early bearing and fairly vigorous.

• Uses: Fresh eating and cooking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 4-9
• Attributes: Early bearing

An old Russian apple imported into England from Sweden in 1816, and was brought to America in 1835. Commonly grown by gardeners and backyard orchardists in the north. Flavorful with strong acidity. Fruit medium size, skin yellow, flushed crimson. Flesh firm, coarse, greenish-white and quite tart. Makes flavorful dried apples; some old-timers rate this best for pie. One important note of interest; they are known for bursting their skin when they become over-ripe so pick when ripe.

• Uses: Fresh eating and cooking
• Harvest: Very early
• Zones: 4-10
• Attributes: Cold hardy

A red sport of the California favorite, it is similar to Gravenstein but sweeter. Skin is a deep solid crimson to purple-red and hangs beautifully on the tree. White, crisp, sweet, full-bodied flesh lends itself to delicious juice and pies. Ripens over the course of several weeks. This striking strain stood out among an orchard of Red Gravs in Graton, California. A few apple varieties for pollination are the Red Astrachan and/or the Jonathan. Triploid.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and cooking
• Harvest: Early
• Zones: 6-10
• Attributes: Sweeter than original Gravenstein

Large, oblong conic fruit with deep cranberry skin. Dark red flesh with a tangy flavor. Makes a beautiful cranberry red, delicious tart sauce. Foliage grey-green with a purple tinge, subtle yet beautiful.

• Uses: Cooking
• Harvest: Midseason
• Zones: 4-10
• Attributes: Excellent pollinator

Esteemed in France for making tarts and late eating when mellowed. A very late season medium size apple. Fruit greenish-yellow gold. Medium to large. Great dessert apple sharp, dry, sweet, crisp texture and flavor. Picked early, it’s considered a top cooking apple, tart and flavorful; when picked later and stored, you’ll find a sweet and relatively dry eating apple. Consider Grimes Golden and/or Newtown Pippin for pollination. Triploid.

• Uses: Fresh eating and cooking
• Harvest: Very late
• Zones: 5-9
• Attributes: Excellent storage quality

Regarded as the finest American cooking apple in early colonial times. Extremely popular apple in the eastern United States for over 200 years, they were sold in markets right up until the 1930s. The Rhode Island Greening is a cooking apple when it’s freshly picked packing plenty of tartness and later as an eating apple that keeps well right into spring. Fruit medium to large, round and symmetrical with green skin and occasional orange flush. Firm, rich, juicy, greenish-yellow flesh with peculiar, tart, refreshing, pleasantly acid flavor. One of the best pie apples and excellent for fresh eating if tree-ripened. Consider Grimes Golden, Liberty and/or White Pearmain for pollination. Triploid.

• Uses: Fresh eating and cooking
• Harvest: Midseason
• Zones: 4-10
• Attributes: Early colonial apple variety

It originated in Yorkshire, England, around 1700 as a dessert apple, and was grown from three apple pips (seeds) sent from Normandy to Sir Henry Goodricke of Ribston Hall at Knaresborough, in Yorkshire, in 1709. Only one seed germinated and matured. The original tree was blown down in 1810, but was propped up and lived until 1928. This is a highly esteemed Victorian dessert apple. Also referred to as the Glory of York. Juicy, firm deep cream-colored flesh has an intense, rich, aromatic apple flavor, along with an intense sharpness. Skin striped red over greenish-yellow, with russet patches. Parent of the famous Cox’s Orange Pippin. Consider Grimes Golden, Liberty and/or White Pearmain for pollination. Triploid.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and cooking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 4-9
• Attributes: Parent of Cox’s Orange Pippin

The first Roxbury Russet tree sprung up around 1635 in Roxbury near Boston. It’s the oldest American apple still being grown today. Excellent old cider apple, a keeper and good for eating fresh. Large greenish, sometimes bronze tinged skin almost covered with yellowish-brown russet. Remarkable for its amount of sugar. Firm, slightly coarse, fairly tender, yellowish-white flesh. Tree medium to large, a good cropper on rich soils. Displays resistance to scab and cedar apple rust.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and cooking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 5-9
• Attributes: Excellent storage quality

Discovered in the orchard of a Richard Harvey, Bury St. Edmunds, England, about 1870. The best early russet and listed among the six best apples grown in England. Flat uniform-sized apple covered with a smooth, pale, beautiful fawn-colored russet in our climate. Very juicy, crisp, yellowish flesh, with pear-like flavor. Great for cider as well as eating. Shows some resistance to scab and cedar apple rust.

• Uses: Fresh eating and cider
• Harvest: Midseason
• Zones: 6-9
• Attributes: Best early Russeted variety

The Shinsei is an apple which was mislabeled in our orchard. Known onsite as the Seek-No-Further, the identity came into question at the 2019 Heritage Orchard Conference. After sending tissue samples to Washington State University for genetic testing, we have found that the correct identity of this variety is the Shinsei. The Shinsei is a Japanese variety that originated in the 1930’s, as a cross between a Golden Delicious and an Early McIntosh. Although the name has changed, everything we love about this apple remains. The crisp flesh is creamy-off white with a fine-grained texture and thin skin. A medium-sized apple, the Shinsei develops a bright, almost iridescent, yellow as it ripens and has a sweet, honeyed flavor. Although prone to apple scab in cool, wet springs, the Shinsei sees little disease pressure otherwise.

• Uses: Fresh eating
• Harvest: Midseason
• Zones: 5-9
• Attributes: Excellent sweet flavor with little disease pressure

Smokehouse is a seedling of the ancient American variety, Vandevere. Smokehouse originated in Lampeter Township, Pennsylvania about 1800’s adjacent to William Gibbons’ smokehouse. Tender, but firm, exceedingly juicy, yellow tinged flesh. Fresh cider flavor. Young, productive bearer and a reliable cropper. Flattish, red-striped yellow fruit. Hardy to below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Excellent keeper, very good quality apple for multiple uses. Shows some resistance to fireblight.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and baking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 3-9
• Attributes: Extremely cold hardy and excellent storage quality

One of the oldest and most desirable dessert apples, a parent of the aromatic McIntosh. Flesh is tender, spicy, distinctive in flavor and snow white in color with occasional crimson stains near the skin. Very hardy, heavy bearing tree that is excellent for home orchards. Delicious fresh off the tree, in cider or in culinary creations.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and baking
• Harvest: Early
• Zones: 3-10
• Attributes: Extremely cold hardy

An exceptionally high quality apple, this very large yellow fruit is firm, very juicy and carries an aromatic spicy flavor. It’s hard to believe that such a large apple can taste so good. Often best picked and stored for a few weeks for optimal flavor. Delicious blended flavor of its parents, with a unique flavor of its own. Displays some resistance to fireblight. Consider Grimes Golden, Liberty and/or White Pearmain for pollination. Triploid.

• Uses: Fresh eating and cooking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 4-10
• Attributes: Blends flavors of Golden Delicious and Northern Spy

Spitzenburg apple was discovered in the late 1700s by an early Dutch settler of that name. It was found at the settlement of Esopus, on the Hudson River, in Ulster County, New York. Much attention was bestowed upon this apple when Thomas Jefferson ordered a dozen trees for his orchard in Monticello. Unexcelled in flavor or quality, the fruit is great off the tree, but flavor radically improves in storage. Medium apple with crisp, yellow skin covered with inconspicuous red stripes and russet freckles. Flesh is tinged yellow, firm, aromatic and complex in flavor; a perfect balance between sharp and sweet.

• Uses: Fresh eating and cooking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 5-10
• Attributes: One of Thomas Jefferson’s favorite apples

This parent of Red Delicious has superior flavor and crispness to the red offspring in the supermarket bin. Green skin with red stripes and the familiar elongated shape and five points at the bottom.

• Uses: Fresh eating
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 6-10
• Attributes: Much better than supermarket Red Delicious

An early season delight, just before Gravenstein with a handsome, striped red over ivory skin and red splashes like strawberries in vanilla ice cream in the flesh. Hints of strawberry in the nose and taste, too. Enjoy them early, they don’t keep.

• Uses: Fresh eating and cooking
• Harvest: Very early
• Zones: 5-9
• Attributes: Unusually beautiful flesh

A 16th century French apple popular with American colonists. Rambour is a French name given to certain varieties of red apples of a large size. Crisp, very juicy, breaking flesh, a great apple for early season eating out of hand and also good for sauce. Large red fruit, bright striped. Precocious, vigorous, hardy and productive tree. Displays some resistance to scab and fireblight.

• Uses: Fresh eating and cooking
• Harvest: Early
• Zones: 4-9
• Attributes: Early and heavy bearer

Delicious apple for eating and cooking. Tender, white fine flesh, agreeably subacid. Sweet and sprightly. Skin pale greenish yellow, striped and splashed with red on the exposed cheek. Ripens in early August.

• Uses: Fresh eating and cooking
• Harvest: Early
• Zones: 4-9
• Attributes: Cold hardy and beautiful blush striping

Tolman Sweet one of America’s oldest varieties. No one knows when and where it originated, but some think it may have been a cross between Sweet Greening and a Russet that was found growing in Dorchester, Massachusetts well before 1700. Highly esteemed for baking, stewing and making cider, this is one of the best late sweet apples. Pale yellow skin with russet lines envelops firm, white, sweet fleshed medium to large apples. Bears reliably almost everywhere and is especially hardy.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and baking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 4-9
• Attributes: Reliable bearer

An all-purpose variety that was first exhibited by George Howland of New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1843 at the Mass Horticultural Society. Evidently it was Howland who found the original seedling on his farm in Cayuga County, New York and then brought it with him to Massachusetts. As the name implies, this apple can reach enormous proportions. Attractive, very large, striped red flush over a greenish background. Flesh white and semi-firm with high quality; said to be the premier cooking apple for more than 100 years. Also great for desserts. Medium sized tree comes into bearing young.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider, cooking and baking
• Harvest: Midseason
• Zones: 5-10
• Attributes: Produces enormous apples

Horticulturalist Peter Gideon grew the first Wealthy in 1868. Gideon sent the family’s last dollars to an apple grower in Bangor, Maine, and got a bushel of apple seeds in return. Just one of these seeds, crossed with Gideon’s Siberian crab apple, produced the apple that Gideon later named the Wealthy, after his wife, Wealthy Gideon. The Wealthy apple was the earliest apple to thrive in the Minnesota climate. Pale yellow fruit splashed and striped with red. Ripens to all-over scarlet for fresh eating; used weeks earlier for pies, sauces and preserves. Flesh is sprightly, vinous, distinctive flavor with a hint of strawberry. Small compact tree bears heavily, is very hardy and low chill. Blooms profusely over a long period, making it an excellent pollinator. This is a favorite for home orchards in Minnesota and the east.

• Uses: Fresh eating and cooking
• Harvest: Midseason
• Zones: 4-10
• Attributes: Excellent pollinator and heavy bearer

Oldest known English apple. The fruit is medium in size, uniform in shape and possesses light green skin, usually flushed red on one side. The mildly sweet and pleasantly aromatic flesh is firm, fine-grained and crisp; an excellent dessert apple. A vigorous, self-fertile variety that also serves as a great pollinizer for other apple trees. White Pearmain is a vigorous tree well adapted to coastal districts out west.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and baking
• Harvest: Very late
• Zones: 5-10
• Attributes: Oldest known English apple and great pollinator

Albert Etter introduction. Humboldt County, CA, 1944. Albert Etter named this apple after E.J. Wickson, distinguished California pomologist, who was his friend and mentor. Perfect cider apple: spicy, with extraordinary sweetness and a pronounced acid tang. Size is that of a large crab apple. Reputed to make wonderful champagne cider and excellent fresh off the tree. One of our favorite eating apples offered. Fruit hangs in garlands.

• Uses: Fresh eating, cider and baking
• Harvest: Late
• Zones: 5-9
• Attributes: Excellent pollinator

William’s Pride is highly thought of for its good flavor — especially for an early apple — and its ability to remain crisp and delicious for at least six weeks after harvest. This is unusual for a variety that ripens in August. Named after Edwin B. Williams, the long-time leader of the disease-resistant apple breeding program at Purdue University.

• Uses: Fresh eating and cooking
• Harvest: Very early
• Zones: 4-8
• Attributes: Excellent early variety