These dates are usually pretty close, but with the changing climate…?
As for the little stars, they are an indication of how much fruit will probably be available if there is no crop failure of that variety.
* 1-3 trees not likely full grown (10-100lbs). You might see a box or two at SF Ferry Plaza Market on Saturdays and at our farmstand…but if you blink you might miss it.
** 3-12 trees, some of which are full grown (100-1,000 lbs). If we have a bumper crop they should be at SF and the farmstand for 2-4 weeks, but if it’s small maybe only one week. Occasionally, these get out to the open market and may show up at your local natural food store.
*** Over 12 full grown trees. Pretty much all of these are sold to wholesalers every year and should be at SF and the farmstand for several weeks barring a disaster.
**** Only Golden Delicious (now sold as Philo Gold) and Sierra Beauty get this many stars. There are hundreds of these trees. We sell these until Xmas here and in SF.
Possibly a seedling of Winesap with a very deep purple red coloring. Very crisp, coarse flesh with sharp flavor. It is an excellent keeper whose flavor actually improves with some storage. Also a good cider apple.
A Local seedling from Art Gowan’s Orchard, down the road apiece. When Art died, the kids named his favorite seedling after him. A late, crisp and tart treat. One of our favorites (Sophia’s and Rita’s absolute numero uno).
This is what an apple was like three hundred years ago. The fully russetted skin makes a fine nutty package for the intensely flavored flesh. This little apple is still winning taste tests in England, and for good reason. Very good for cider.
Origin: Russia/Sweden/England (1814)/U.S. 1835 or so.
The continuing popularity of this apple is amazing. Most people spit this one out as it is very tart and way too early (Late June, some years) for American palates (still eating cherries, apricots, and just starting on peaches) BUT...this apple makes THE best sauce or puree and great pies. It is not crisp and does not keep long. A wonderfully curious anomaly. Amuse your friends and amaze your enemies!
Flesh firm to coarse. Flavor sweet to crisp. It was once the most planted variety in New England but its reign over the landscape ended in the terrible winter of 1934 in which tens of thousands of trees perished. This gave way to the new king of the day, McIntosh.
These large apples are greenish-yellow with a beautiful red-orange blush on sun kissed fruits. Behind the russeted skin is the crisp, dense, tangy, highly aromatic flesh. Great for fresh eating, cooking and adding a complex tart element to fresh or hard cider. A Karen favorite!
Possibly a seedling of Winesap with a very deep purple red coloring. Very crisp, coarse flesh with sharp flavor. It is an excellent keeper whose flavor actually improves with storage. An excellent cider apple.
Another great introduction from down under. Crisp, sweet and tart, it has gained many fans. Late season apple good for fresh eating. Makes fabulous pies.
From a pip in a pot to England’s favorite cooking apple. The East Bay/Great Britian clatch gets a crazed look in their eyes and starts salivating when this one comes into season. This large green apple has an extreme tart flavor. Great in applesauce, pies and adds a sharp component to a too-sweet cider. We’ve been adding trees for several years…it’s that good.
A “sport” of the famous Cox Orange Pippin, but redder and harvested much later. Flavor nearly as good as its parent, but it keeps a lot longer.
Named for its cinnamon-like flavor (usually undetectable by us---maybe if you close your eyes and…) A favorite on California’s North Coast. Smallish very red fruit. Stays crisp for a while.
Crisp yellow flesh is juicy and vinous (wine-like). Smallish, but packs a sweet, flavorful punch. Stubborn grower and supplier at our farm and after 20 years we haven’t nailed down harvest dates or harvested more than 40 lbs…but we love the name and recommendation from Michael Rose.
The best of the early season fresh eating apples (though maybe rivaled by Kerry Irish Pippin…you decide)! Smaller fruit with a delightfully crisp and refreshing taste and aromatics. Yellowish-white covered with red striping. Our apples do not match historic descriptions and we’re reconsidering its identification.
Oft requested by Mid-Westerners as their favorite, this McIntosh cross does not seem to be as described (tart, tangy flavor, etc.) but is decent most years. Beautiful purplish blush and usually crispy.
Regarded by the English as the finest flavored fresh eating apple. Medium size conical fruit with a dull orange finish. Tart, complex, distinctive flavor and incredible aroma. Great for fresh eating, cooking, pies, and cider.
These little cuties pack a punch! Traditional homestead tree for pickles, jelly, and spicing up sauce. Adds considerable acid and body to hard cider. Fresh eating for the brave!
A recently rediscovered Etters Gem. Tart, crisp, complex, and beautiful to boot! Makes a great fresh cider. Buy for the looks, come back for the taste. Quickly sells out.
Very early cropper here---a favorite of Blackbirds and Jays for it’s bright red color. Lightly crisp and very fruity. To be eaten right away—does not keep. Originally bought for the name and because it reminded us of Bo Diddly’s beautiful sister who often went on tour (check out the Animals version).
Jury is still out on this one—haven’t had enough crops yet to pass judgment. Developed by our guy Albert Etters as a jumbo crabapple. Needed to add to my Biblical line along with King David and Solomon.
Most years it’s pretty tasty and crisp. Slow to produce for us—maybe not worth growing here.
An early pippin very similar to Newtown Pippin but coming much earlier in the season. It is a favorite tart green cooking apple.
A McIntosh descendent and parent of Connell Red. Often large with a definite fiery orange glow. Crispy right off the tree and usually quite tasty with subacidic fruity overtones.
Origin: Unknown but named after Foxwhelp Farms in Healdsburg around 1854. Probably not the original descendent any more. Fun to grow but produces lightly. A bittersharp cider variety that did not turn into a dessert apple at our farm. Definitely for hard cider or someone who digs unusual harsh flavors.
Cox Orange Pippin and Golden Delicious cross (great idea). Trees are still young and the fruit is promising so far. Juicy, aromatic, acidulous, and sugary. A hint of licorice? Bananas? Maybe.
We were told in the earlier days that a buyer would buy all the Fujis I could grow so I started grafting over a few trees and ordered some from a nursery. The buyer moved on and we were not enamored with the flavor---but it is definitely a favorite to many pallets.
The freshman in our lineup and we are sure it is going to go far. Flesh is very firm, with a tarty, winey, clean edge and effervescence on the tongue. Most specimens have golden flecks on their skins, hence the name. Great keeper and a customer favorite.
An old American cider apple. Fully russeted skin with a sugary dense flesh. Historically this apple was often mentioned and rated higher than the similar Roxbury Russet.
An outstanding summer heirloom apple, renowned in the Sebastopol area before the great grape plantings. Don't wait when you see them come in. They don't keep well and will disappear before you know it. Thin skinned, juicy and acidic, the Gravenstein lives up to its reputation as a perfect pie and sauce apple.
Yep, another Etters composition and a (very) pink fleshed creation. This one is quite late compared to Pink Pearl. Only one tree so far but fruit is sharp and pleasing. Beautiful pomegranate like interior. We will probably grow some more.
A tree given to me by Winkler’s Nursery in the early 90’s was tagged as Hanner’s Best and claimed to be a very large fruit. Apparently from the Hanner Ranch in Oregon (which my neighbor Jim Gowan says he visited in the 80’s—so it probably exists or existed). Sure enough this apple has won the largest apple at the County Fair at least 6 years in a row, especially since a Wolf River grower has stopped entering (whew). Fruit is not too crisp and has a pleasing non-acidic flavor. Been told it cooks well too, we have NOT tried baking it yet. Either you love it or are amazed by it or intimidated by it’s size. Great red color, blocky, and lopsided. There’s more to this story… somewhere… help if you know more!
Watsonville’s Hauer Ranch is the birthplace of this fascinating apple. Large, crisp, hard, LATE, juicy, tasty, tart and keeps practically forever. Will reportedly hang on tree until Xmas (I believe it!). Along with the Lady it’s also known as the Xmas Apple.
Stories abound about this one. Probably “rediscovered” (so where was it “discovered?”) at the Newell estate in Willamette Valley by Louis Kimzey. The term Hidden Rose® is trademarked. The apple is smallish with beautiful purply/pink blushed yellow skin and deep pink inside. While not as flavorful as Pink Pearl, it is quite tart and pleasing.
A fence row seedling introduced by the Hudson Wholesale Nursery. A large, conical fruit, don’t let the mud-like skin fool you, it’s a fine eating russet with crisp, juicy, sugary flesh and a distinct pear flavor.
This is an apple that is both tart and sweet. Good out of hand when it is very fresh and crisp and a great baking apple when it starts to soften. Multiple pickings are required for size and color.
Named after that same Vixen that broke soldiers’ hearts in opera and movies, this apple is as difficult to get a grasp on as her namesake. Very disease susceptible and often quite “ugly”. In 2014 we didn’t even pick them (shriveled, cracked, deformed) which was kinda ok since we only have 2 trees. Very flavorable and somewhat tart when nice enough to pick.
First great apple of the year! (…although we said that about Connell Red, too) Crisp, hard-fleshed, and tart with complex intriguing flavor.
A hybrid of the famous Cox Orange Pippin. Orangey pink flush with some striping over a pale yellow skin. Medium size with a curious conical profile. Sweet, tart, and very aromatic. Great for fresh eating and cider.
Probably a cross between Jonathan and Arkansas Black. A beautiful dark red apple with outstanding flavor. Often used in cider making. The flesh is yellowish, coarse, crisp, and tender. Word is out on this one…cider makers and customers are looking for and demanding it.
This smooth-skinned large apple is good for cooking and fresh eating. We also use it for our apple juice, harvesting from our neighboring friends’ property at Russell Ranch, with trees close to a hundred years old. Water core (translucent pockets in the flesh) concentrates sweetness and is almost guaranteed in our area.
Probably a sibling of Arkansas Black. Named by Ram Fishman at Greenmantle Nursery in the 70’s? From a seedling that old timers remember getting scionwood from. Good folklore. At our farm the fruit is often very large with a beautiful, spotted, deep purplish skin. It has an indescribably distinct flavor, slightly sub-acidic and crispy when fresh.
Famous cider apple. Reputed to be the BEST single variety for cider. We found it to be YUCKY. It has potential for blending with sweeter ciders. Either Californians have not developed an English pallet (hopefully never will) or it’s an entirely different cup ‘o tea here in CA. Definitely a spitter if you take a bite.
A cross between Idaho and England. Gnarly and brown. Who can tell what it is? But it is crisp (usually), rich, sugary and highly flavored. Very interesting!
Also known as Pomme d'Api or the Christmas Apple, it was grown by Louis XIII in his orchards. Crisp white flesh with an intense almost citrus-like flavor. This tiny apple is beautiful with its red-over-green markings making delightful leaf patterns on the skin.
McIntosh descent. Firm, aromatic, and white fleshed. Here it has a smallish, deep red color. Much beloved by a boisterous SF actor whom we have dubbed Mr. Macoun.
A classic apple from the east coast, also the parent apple of Cortland, Empire, Macoun, and Spartan. Great flavor, very juicy and aromatic. Easterners are happy to see it in the market, but quick to say that it pales in comparison to those grown in their original cold climate. This ain’t Vermont. West Coast Macs ripen early and do not keep real well. Eat them quickly.
The official Ohio state apple fits well among our California buckeyes. Large fruit with yellowish-green skin streaked dark red with russet spots. Good for cooking and pies; fresh eating improves with storage.
German for Hoary (whitish, frosted) Morning. Very fruity flavor and crunchy most of the time. “Interesting” is all we can say.
Three nearly full-grown trees have yet to give any sizable crop. It is the essence of a pippin---tart, firm, green, sprightly aromatic flavor. Great for pies and stores well.
Love the Name. Just planted here in 2014, so no local news yet. Over 20 “other” names—Red Warrior, Carolina Spice, Winter Horse, World’s Wonder, Cheataw---gotta love all that! Supposedly good for pies, drying, and hard cider. Let’s find out…someday.
Origin: Kyrgystan, who knows when or where?
Deep, deep red skin and even deeper red flesh. Largish. VERY tart here, but with a tolerable sweetness that is gratifying to experimental pallets. Incredibly beautiful tree, but it has been stubborn to produce much of a crop so far.
Slow to bear, but worth the wait. The consummate pie apple according to many Easterners “ain’t nuthin like no spy pie.” Juicy, sweetly tart, and high in vitamin C, it is wonderful out of hand. Slipping from sight very quickly as it is both alternate bearing and easily bruised. Be gentle.
Not a true pippin but just as good. Local lore says it was originally called Flat Red. Tim Bates says, “Hey, it’s not round.” Very nutty and tart. Good for cooking and balancing sweeter ciders.
From one of two known trees in Philo. Eat right away for their crisp and perfumed flavor. Name originates from Mrs. Bryan in the late ‘70s.
An oddball in the Red Delicious block that no locals could put a name to. We began to sell it at the farmstand as a mystery apple. Great local artist Paula Gray loved it, so we named it after her. Dense and fruity with a hint of tartness. Looks a lot like the Hawaii apple but doesn’t taste quite the same---other Hawaii growers says it’s not…ok.
Many of our oldest golden delicious trees were among the first planted in California. They have reached a maturity that sets them far apart from usual goldens, hence the change of name. You may never have had a fresh golden. Left unwaxed, their natural perfume comes through and the flavor and texture are wonderful. We find them to be great cooking apples, retaining both color and shape, as well as living up to their longstanding reputation for eating out of hand. We pick Golds throughout the season for color and ripeness.
An Albert Etters apple descended from an old English variety named Surprise. Crisp, tart, and aromatic with startlingly pink flesh. Pies and tarts are quite beautiful and slices hold their shape but cook up very tender. Early, and therefore not a good keeper, its fleeting presence is not easily forgotten.
From a branch on a tree in the lower orchard. No one knows it, so we got to name it. Late, largish, with a well balanced tartness. We love it and you will, too!
These are California Red Delicious. We had several varieties, from striped to solid, when we bought the farm, and saved the best tasting striper (probably a Starking—yeah, the Stark Bro’s again). If you find them fresh, sweet, and crisp then you will know they are locally grown and in season.
Very sweet, low-acid apple with yellow flesh. Eat these right away as they do not keep. For the here and now. They do dry very well though.
An old favorite cooking apple that many people remember. It is quite tart with dense flesh and does not shatter in pies. It has often been marketed as an early pippin, but it has its own characteristics.
Possibly the first apple developed in the New World. A fine cider apple with firm, coarse flesh. Equally suited for cooking and eating out of hand, these russets are a real treat.
This apple is native to the Anderson Valley and a great favorite. It is large, crisp, juicy, and very tart with a great snap. It also has excellent cooking and keeping qualities.
Beautiful rose colored apple. Sweet and crisp with low acid. One of our best keepers. In New Zealand it is considered the Prince of Apples. The Stark brothers named it Starksplendor but they gave up the patent because they thought the apple wasn’t good enough. Bad Call, guys.
A seedling of the original Winesap. It has the same winy character, but with a little extra something (like a longer name). Good fresh, cooked, or pressed. Keeps well.
Dutch settlers named it Swaar, which means “heavy”. The dense and firm flesh carries nuttiness and rich aromatics. Experiencing this apple will prove its name and storage will improve its flavor.
Aromatic, sub-acidic, firm, and crisp with a high sugar content. Unique, faintly nutty flavor with hints of banana and licorice (LL). After all those adjectives all we can say is it’s a damn good apple.
Classic English bittersweet cider apple, but blended with sweeter ciders it has real potential. Eat straight at your own risk—extremely tart…and of course, BITTER.
A McIntosh type. Earlier (if you just can’t wait) with a bright red skin and firm, crisp, white flesh.
Good early all-around apple. Very colorful red striping on greenish/yellow skin. Flesh is sprightly, vinous, and distinctive. Keeps well for an early apple and is good for baking and fresh eating.
This one does not live up to descriptions most years—it probably needs more chill factor than we get. But every few years (colder winters?) it is crisp, fruity, sub-acidic, and aromatic. Great name, so of course I had to have it—just one tree.
Firm, crisp out-of-hand apple. Once very popular in Napa Valley. Also well adapted to coastal areas. Around the 1850s it was saddle-bagged from New York to the Midwest where it became popular.
Another of Albert Etters introductions, not well known, though word is getting out. Customers at the SF Market buy pounds every week to snack until the next market. It is named after E.J. Wickson, a famous California pomologist. The flavor has the zing of a crabapple but plenty of sweetness to balance it out. For such a tiny little apple it is very exciting, and one of our personal favorites (Polly’s absolute favorite). It also makes an especially fine cider.
Another highly acclaimed English cider apple that is not doing well here, even planted in my best soil. Have not had enough of a crop in 15 years to say anything about it…sorry.
Beautiful pale creamy yellow with a delicate pink blush on the sunny side. Flesh moderately firm, sub-acid, and characteristically aromatic. Best as a fruit bowl or salad apple, for it is slow to oxidize.
Beloved by old timers in No. California (once the most grown apple in the state). It has a vey distinctive shape and coloring. Apparently stores well and has various uses as it “mellows”. The tree grows very well, but I’ll be damned if I can get it to bear with any regularity.
Fruit medium to large, lopsided, oblate, tending towards a rhombozoidal fashion. Firm, crisp, tender, juicy, yellowish flesh. One of the best old-time winter keeping apples.
Only one stubborn tree has survived with next to no fruit…so far. The jury is out until we know more. Supposedly a russetted apple with hardy, nutty flavor.
A classic pear! Golden and juicy when ripe. Beautifully aromatic. Keeps well when still green. Great for drying.
Medium to large fruit with green-yellow russet, as the name implies! A very smooth, juicy pear with flavor that is hard to beat. Our favorite pear on The Apple Farm.
Elegant shape and russet color. Refreshingly crisp when young and sweet melting flesh through storage. Experience its many characters throughout weeks (even months!) in the refrigerator.
Yellowish-green skin and white fine-textured buttery flesh. Flavor improves in storage. One of the most famous “American” pears.
Large, roundish pear with clear yellow skin and marble red blush. Sweet and aromatic with a slightly musky flavor.
Just planted in 2014…waiting to see. Reportedly free of grittiness and perfumed flesh of the very best quality—sounds good enough.
Highly recommended by Mark at Sandy Bar Nursery. No fruit as of 2015….waiting, waiting.
Diminutive fruit with yellow-brown russet skin, sometimes with a burgundy blush. Delicious juicy flesh, distinctive and aromatic. A farm favorite.
The last pear of the season. Cute roundish fruit with green skin and russeted flecks. It has fine rich flesh without the grittiness.
THANKS TO FAMILY AND FARMHANDS: Rita, Sophia, Jerzy, Lauren….and Karen. For input, output, loves and hates.
--FRUIT, BERRY AND NUT INVENTORY---The most complete reference source out there.
--TREES OF ANTIQUITY---Nursery sellers par excellent of about 50 of the varieties I grow.
--GREENMANTLE NURSERY---Ram Fishman. This teller of great stories has a most excellent website. He’s also the keeper of the Albert Etter’s flame.
--OLD SOUTHERN APPLES---Creighton Lee Calhoun, Jr. (A grand Southern name if I ever heard one) His tome is the best source for stories on the more “obscure” varieties.
--GARCIA RIVER NURSERY---Nick King (may he rest in peace) started this little venture and grew starts from my own scionwood and we became close friends.
--APPLE HILL ORCHARDS---I still have Russel Hill’s one and only catalogue from the 80’s. Nearly 300 varieties deeply researched. He named one of my seedlings Bates’ Seedling. I was too embarrassed so changed it to Pride O’ Philo. Thanks, anyway.
--ROGER YEPSON---His small tome (APPLES) has hands down the best paintings of apples since who knows when.
--And of course THE APPLES OF NEW YORK---It’s always good to have a Bible around…and those illustrations!! Time for a volume III?
--And…Burford and Bunker for inspiration and scions, M. Philips (for inspired perspiration), and now Rowan Jacobsen with a new book.