A test plot was planted in 2021. With the initial success of those trees, more will be planted in 2025. Pristine is all you expect of a yellow apple, but with disease resistance. The apple ripens in early August allowing us to expand our apple season. Expect these apples to trickle in and one day to be a U-Pick option.

These aren’t like other crab apples. Whitney Crab apples are sweet. Originally, these apple were made for juice and a favorite for pickling. Their heyday is long gone, but we keep a few around for a few select customers.

Duchess is a great cooking apple whose days have passed. Before the days of apples being available 365 days, Duchess made a great pie to go with fresh tomatoes for that BLT along with buttered sweet corn. A favorite among grandmothers and those who know a great cooking apple.

An old University of Minnesota bred apple long before the days of Honeycrisp. An heirloom that can be eaten and cooked with during early fall. Many early apples had a grainy taste. State Fair bucked that trend although still soft for an early variety. It had the typical texture that consumers expected of an apple.

Zestar is our first great eating apples and one of my personal favorites. This University of Minnesota apple has been bred with the Honeycrisp to offspring new powerhouses like the Sweetango and Kudos apple. Many of our customers now prefer this apple over the Honeycrisp. Zestar is a great eating apple, but can be cooked with as well.

Sansa is a Gala and Akane cross. While Gala is a great apple, the tree struggles in northern climate zones. Akane gives the apple its cold hardiness. Planted in 2020, this delicious apple will begin trickling into the shop in years to come. The plan is to have this as an early U-Pick option as well.

The national apple of Canada. This is the cooking apple of choice. McIntosh has a great depth of flavor and richness once cooked. Unfortunately, it has fallen out of favor with the decrease of people cooking in their homes. The apple also lacks the durability for global transportation. Our customers still love this apple and get picked heavily as our next U Pick option a well.

This daughter of the McIntosh is the jack of all trades. You can eat it, sauce it and cook it. Early in the season, it is great for eating when it has that crunch. Cortland are especially good for pie filling has they retain their shape. This is our second largest seller by volume and a favorite U Pick apple.

If you have been living under a rock, Honeycrisp is thee eating apple. This University of Minnesota apple has no equal. It has the perfect combination of juicy, tart and sweet. Not a great cooking apple. You can, not sure why one would. The difficulty with cooking with Honeycrisp is all that water weight. Honeycrisp can turn that crisp into apple mush.

My favorite new apple. We have been heavily planting this variety with hopes as well of it being a U Pick offering. This will only be available sparingly in the coming years. In the meantime, this apple can be found more frequently in your local grocery store.

Another Wisconsin discovery. This apple is one of the largest apples in the world. I’ve picked Wolf Rivers the size of footballs. As the name suggests, it was originally discovered along the Wolf River. Unfortunately, not a great eating apple. It is a wonderful cooking apple. Wolf River apples cook down well making them ideal for sauce and cooking depending on the recipe.

Yellow apples can be a difficult for an orchardist. They bruise easily and size is a challenge. Golden Supreme is the latest yellow apple that can buck this trend. They are firmer and larger than their cousins. Golden Supreme are unique in their hexagonal shape. We hope this apple will be successful yellow apple for us.

If you like a Granny Smith, you will like the Northwest Greening. We unfortunately live to far north to grow Granny Smith and the fact Granny Smith wouldn’t ripen till November. Greening’s claim to fame is its use as keeper. I would bring my grandpa a couple of bushels of Greening every X-mas and he would cook with them all winter long.

Another University of Minnesota apple that once boasted the highest sugar content of any apple on the market as the name suggests. Some may know this apple as Song of September as well. Anecdotally, it is a favorite amongst our older clientele. Guys especially.

People love them, but a difficult tree from my perspective. Hard to grow, difficult to manage and a pain to prune. We keep the few we have left because we have a few customers that love them. The plan is for Honey Gold to eventually be replaced with Golden Supreme.

A late fall favorite of my wife. Connell Red is a sport of Fireside. Essentially, it is a Fireside but a chance mutation occurred during grafting. Connell Red was discovered in Menomonie, WI. Connell Red has a unique flavor that is hard to define. Its claim to fame is that it is slow to brown. It makes it uniquely great for salads.

Snowsweet is a daughter of the Connell Red. Like the name suggests, the apple is extremely resistant to browning. If you want to cut up some apples for a party, Snowsweet would be a good choice. No lemon juice necessary.

Originally bred as hardier McIntosh apple. It is essentially a late season McIntosh. We only have one tree left of this variety, but the tree is prolific and still satisfies a small customer niche. If you want a late season McIntosh, Spartan is a good substitute.

Another heirloom apple that has seen better days. These size challenged apples are amazing late season bakers. Good Jonathan have a hint of pink inside with tiny floral notes. Unfortunately, the trees struggle in our colder climate. This is an apple that will eventually disappear from our offerings.

Triumph is a Honeycrisp and Liberty cross. This University of Minnesota bred apple was to try to fix the shortcomings of Honeycrisp. Liberty is a highly disease resistant apple. Planted in 2021, this variety will be a future offering. The few we got in 2023 were scrumptious.

A regional favorite from the UofM. It is very tart, but many late season apples tend to be. If you are looking for something with some zing to add to your pie, this is your apple. Admittedly, not my favorite tree as it has challenges as well as the fruit. As with many of our varieties, we will keep a few around for that small niche. However, we will look for other replacements.

This late season apple was planted in 2023. Our hope is that Autumn Crisp will be a suitable replacement for the Haralson apple. It has that same zing as the Haralson, but hopefully size and tree will prosper a little better.

Crimson Crisp is an apple that I am oddly excited about. Once thought to be too fragile to grow here, the zone changes has me planting a number of these in 2024. The apple is disease resistant. Crimson Crisp has been successful at orchards further south. Our hope is that this too will be a future U Pick option.

Planted in 2020, this novelty apple has a red flesh. It has been a tricky apple for us. We have surmised that this may be an apple that is picked and allowed to mature for a number of weeks in the packing house. Otherwise, Redlove tastes like a crab apple. The few we have tried ripened appropriately have a wonderful fruitiness to them.

Red Delicious of yesterday is not the same apple of today. Sports of Red Delicious were selected for size and color which eventually bred out their flavor. Our older trees do taste better than store bought due to their age. However, this apple is also not meant to be eaten right away. This apple was a keeper that was wrapped in newspaper and stored in a cold cellar. It was an apple one grabbed in February or March. Many of our Amish customers praise its spring time tastiness.

A yellow heirloom apple that ripens in late fall. While certainly great for a yellow apple, it has been challenging for our orchard. The tree has been highly susceptible to fire blight. While originally excited about this addition, we have decided to look elsewhere.