Varieties

Alphabetical listing of varieties:

Ashmead's Kernel

An old English type dating from the 1700s. Very tart flavor with a golden skin and heavy brown russeting. Great for tart eating or for making cider.

Bonnie's Best

A huge apple believed to be related to a Wolf River and Secor. It takes only two apples (no kidding) to make a pie. The taste is slightly lemony. Really a favorite of ours, and the best pie maker we offer.

Braeburn

One of the last to ripen, but well worth the wait. A New Zealand apple, it is crunchy and tart. It also stays in good shape until Christmas.

Centennial Crab

I usually don't like crabs, but this one is very good. About three-bite size, Centennial packs a powerful flavor, sweet/tart and very tasty. Good for putting in a purse, pocket for a snack. Can also be canned whole.

Chieftain

This one was developed right here at Iowa State University. It is a cross between Red Delicious and Jonathan, and seems to take the best from both apples. Has a nice sweet/tart taste, good crunch and it makes delicious pies!

Cortland & Red Cort

The very best apple for salads, it stays white a long time when cut without the use of lemon juice. A nice, large apple with a middle, sweet/tart taste. Red Cort is a red version of Cortland and is similar in attributes.

Dandee Red

Dark red and large, Dandee Red is very good eating with a wine-like taste. Very early, Dandee is a cross between McIntosh and Paula Red. Also good for cooking.

Early Fuji (September Wonder)

Very sweet and crunchy like a regular Fuji, except this one comes in September!

Empire

An underrated apple I think. Empire really is an all-purpose apple. Most people know of only its great taste, but it makes one of the best tasting pies. It also breaks down quite easily into sauce. A Red Delicious/McIntosh cross.

Enterprise

A new, disease free type, Enterprise is an excellent late season apple. Like most late apples, it keeps very well, clear into spring. It has a dark purplish color and is great for Christmas pies or sauce.

Esopus Spitzenburg

One of the oldest types of apple we carry, dating from the late 1700s. Esopus was Thomas Jefferson's favorite apple and he had several planted at Monticello. It is super tart with a complex flavor, and a rough surface. Good for eating, and I like to add them to cider.

Evercrisp

Fantastic new apple developed by the MAIA. A very late apple that is a cross between Fuji and Honey Crisp. Super crisp with keeping qualities that go into spring. - But they never last that long before you eat them!

Fiesta

A new English hybrid, Fiesta is a more hardy and better bearing variety of Cox's Orange Pippin. Great big flavor, tart and complex, Fiesta is excellent for eating.

Fireside (Connell Red)

A Minnesota variety developed in 1943 during Roosevelt's fireside chats. The flavor is very good with a sweet/tart punch. 

Florina

A French apple, Florina has a distinct taste - with a citrus-like banana flavor. Beautiful pink color, it also has good crunch and size.

Fuji

A great, late October apple, Fuji is very crunchy, sweet and keeps well in storage. Compares well against Honey Crisp.

Gala

The sweetest apple we carry and not coincidently, one of my favorites. Its parents are Golden Delicious and Kidds Orange Red. It behaves very much like a Golden Delicious except being juicier and smaller in size. The texture is finer too.

Ginger Gold

A new, popular type that ripens early, but has more of a kick to it than Golden Supreme. The ginger taste really comes out.

Golden Delicious

The best all-purpose apple, Golden Delicious has been around from many, many years, and is the parent of countless others. it tastes sweet and crunchy and can be used for everything. When they are tree-ripened to yellow, they can't be beat.

Gold Splendor

A full-bodied sweet Golden taste, with very good keeping qualities. Excellent for salads as it stays white. Ripens the same time as Golden Supreme, but more like a Golden Delicious in texture. Known formally as Ozark Gold.

Golden Supreme

An early type of Golden Delicious, Golden Supreme is very similar in use. It does have a finer texture and is a bit milder in taste. Very clear, yellow skin.

Gravenstein

An antique, German apple, it has been rumored that some would mortgage the farm for a couple of bushels. It makes absolutely superior apple sauce breaking down completely into a nice, very tart flavor.

Grimes Golden

An antique type from the early 1800s, Grimes is thought to be a parent to Golden Delicious. It isn't like its child though, being tart and sprightly. Grimes also has more of a green color and tends to have a slight russet. Good for old-fashioned tart eating.

Haralson & Red Haralson

Haralson has just made the antique list being founded in 1913. It deserves its long standing. It is a great old-fashioned tart eating apple, with excellent pie making qualities. Red Haralson is a red type and similar in uses, maybe a little less tart than the original.

Heritage Red Delicious

The original Red Delicious was found in Iowa in a fence row. The Heritage Red Delicious is before hybridization. We were fortunate to take grafts from our 50-year old tree before it broke down, and now have many of its children planted, although only one is producing yet. The skin is much thinner and palatable than the new varieties, and the flavor is great. It also is smaller and lighter in color than hybrids.

Honey Crisp

Our best selling apple, we do have people mortgaging the farm for this one. In truth it is spectacular when growing conditions are perfect. Unbelievably crunchy with a mild sweet/tart taste.

Honey Gold

Developed by Minnesota to make a Golden Delicious that is more winter-hardy. Very similar to Gold. Del., with similar uses and taste, perhaps a little finer texture, and it's earlier.

Ida Red

The perfect pie apple when long term storage is needed. Ida Red is large, keeps very well, and has just the right sweet to tart ratio to make perfect desserts.

Jonagold

I personally like this one a little better than Honey Crisp. It isn't nearly as temperamental and is slightly sweeter. It is very crunchy when picked, but unfortunately has a short life span. 

Jonathan

One of the true Midwest antique types, Jonathan is very good for baking and fresh eating. It has that distinct Jonathan taste that hasn't been replicated, and is a favorite with many customers. A parent to many other varieties.

Liberty

A disease resistant variety, with very good baking qualities and tart eating. Its parents are Wealthy and McIntosh, but is really quite similar to Jonathan in its taste and cooking.

McIntosh

An antique variety, McIntosh comes from Canada and was first produced in 1810. Excellent large, all-purpose apple, but especially great in crisps and sauce. The parent of many, many other varieties.

Norkent

A hardy variety from Lawrence Nursery in Maine. Very good early apple with good, sweet taste, yellow with red blush. Parentage is Haralson and Rescue, developed in Canada.

Pink Lady

One of our newest selections, Pink Lady is proving to be a great addition. It kept clear into spring with a great crunch. Very tart, Pink Lady is good for eating and baking. You'll have to wait though - it doesn't ripen here very late October.

Pinova

If you like them tart and hard, this is a good one for you. A German hybrid, Pinova is a large orange apple that ranks right up there with Pink Lady in taste, and its earlier.

Pixie Crunch

A small apple with a big taste, this one is hard to keep in the store and usually sell out fast. Super crunchy with a full, big flavor.

Pristine

Our earliest apples and a very good one. It has clear, yellow skin with a very tart taste. Crunchy for an early apple, it also has pretty good keeping qualities. Makes a good pie also.

Red Free

A not very good name for a good apple, Red Free is a disease free type with tart eating and good baking qualities. Very early, coming in mid. to late August.

Red Delicious

This apple is beat up, and I must defend it by saying that it is very tasty and crunchy (yes!) when it comes off the tree. It gets its unfortunate reputation from grocery stores, where it has been picked green, covered with wax, and stored until the cows come home. Try one when they're ripe. They really are delicious.

Red Rome

A good keeper that is primarily used for baking. A rosy, dark red skin that goes through into the flesh adds beautiful color when baking. I use this one for making most of our jelly. It turns the jelly pink.

Snow

My great-grandma's favorite, and a favorite with many customers. A small, but tasty apple with unusually white flesh. It is a softer apple - kids with braces, and adults that have a harder time biting an apple like this one.

Snow Sweet

Many of my customers ask when are the Snows coming in, meaning not the "Snow" apple above, but this one. It is very popular and for good reason. Super sweet and crunchy, this mid.-sized apple is a recent hybrid from Minnesota. It has been especially popular with u-pickers.

Sweet 16

This large apple has a very distinct taste, maybe licorice? Juicy and crunchy, one of Diane's favorites.

Swiss Gourmet

This is hands down, one of our best tasting apples. They go fast and we have young trees, but one bite and you'll know why. The flavor is very full and complex, sweet and tart with good crunch. Very delicious.

Tolman Sweet

Antique type, and very unusual. It is a greenish apple that you expect to be sour, then surprise - it's really sweet. The texture and taste will remind you of a pear, except crunchier.

Wealthy

One our favorites for sauce. It breaks down into sauce in about half and hour. Very tart, green and round. Wealthy is an antique variety. Our big Wealthy is the oldest fruit tree we have on the farm and is going on 40 years.

William's Pride

An early, new hybrid with excellent sauce qualities. Unlike Wealthy and Gravenstein, William's is dark plum colored with a taste that my daughter describes as sort of like a grape coolaid. Softer, but an excellent taste.

Zestar

A great apple. Early, sweet, large and crunchy. You can't ask for anything more. Excellent eating qualities.

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