apples
Alstede Farms opens our fields for you and your family to pick the very freshest apples!
Apples, apples, apples! Late summer and early fall brings one of the healthiest and most enjoyed fruits – apples. With over 50 different varieties, we have an apple flavor and profile to please everyone. Maybe you would prefer sweet mild Galas over a sharp tart Granny Smith, a zesty Winesap over a juicy McIntosh, please check below the approximate ripening schedule for each apple variety. Fall is a great time to visit the farm and pick apples.
Visit our “what can I pick today” page to see if this crop is currently available for picking.
Please Note: These dates are approximations – Please call to confirm availability.
| Name | Description | Typical Ripen Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Lodi | An attractive yellow early-season apple with a sharp flavor, best used for cooking. | 7/31 |
| Pristine | Beautiful lemon-yellow apple with a perfect finish. This high-quality apple is very productive and is a good keeper for an early apple. | 8/5 |
| Red Free | Medium-size, glossy fruit with bright red color and smooth, waxy skin. Light flesh is crisp and juicy. | 8/5 |
| Ginger Gold | One of the earliest apple varieties to ripen, the fruit is large, conical and starts out a very pale green, and ripens to a soft yellow with a slightly waxy appearance. The flesh, of a cream color, resists browning more than most varieties. The flavor is mild but with a tart finish. Excellent for eating out of hand and makes excellent apple pies. |
8/10 |
| Paula Red | This apple has a slight tartness with an enjoyable flavor with a bit of pear taste in it. The skin is on the tough side and they are soft fleshed. Not a crisp apple but the flavor is worth it. | 8/10 |
| Zestar | Early season apple with a good crisp sweet-tart flavor. | 8/15 |
| Molly’s Delicious | A very good to excellent early ripening apple. Fruits are large to very large, conical in shape with a pinkish red color. Has an exceptionally pleasing aftertaste. This apple can be maintained in storage for at least 10 weeks under refrigeration. | 8/20 |
| Sansa | Essentially this apple is an early-ripening Gala. It inherits Gala’s inherent sweetness. But with more acidity, as might be expected given its earlier ripening season. |
8/20 |
| Rambo | This apple is the season’s first good cooking apple whose slices hold up great in pies. It’s firm enough with good background flavor for baking and some think makes the best applesauce of them all. | 8/25 |
| Gala | One of the most widely-grown apple varieties, with a sweet pleasant flavor, and good keeping qualities. | 8/26 |
| Marshall macintosh | A crisp, red apple with bright, white flesh and a refreshing, sweet flavor. | 9/5 |
| Daybreak Fuji | Like Fuji but harvests six weeks earlier. Developed in Japan, but an all-American cross of Red Delicious and Ralls Janet. A very attractive modern apple, crisp, sweet-flavored, and keeps well. | 9/10 |
| Honeycrisp | This is a crisp, predominantly sweet, modern variety and is one of the most cold-hardy of apple varieties. | 9/10 |
| Pioneer MacIntosh | A mid-season apple, ripening just after Rogers Red Mcintosh. Fruit quality and size are excellent. Flesh is white and firmer than other Mac strains. Fruit colors to a full 90% bright red. Highest quality Mcintosh suitable for CA storage. | 9/12 |
| Cortland | A macintosh offspring, with all the usual characteristics, including the sweet vinous flavor. | 9/15 |
| Liberty | A cross of Macoun and an experimental apple variety, it is a deep red apple with great eating and baking qualities. The fruit is medium to large with rich yellow skin overlaid with dark red stripes and splashes. The pale-yellow flesh is crisp, tender, juicy, and quite flavorful. Ripens in October and improves in flavor over a couple of months of storage | 9/17 |
| Macoun | Dessert-type apple exhibiting similar characteristics to Mcintosh. Macoun is recognized in the Northeast for its high quality. Flesh is white, firm and juicy. It has been regarded to be the finest eating apple in the world. | 9/17 |
| Macoun Lite Free | Dessert-type apple exhibiting similar characteristics to Mcintosh. Macoun is recognized in the Northeast for its high quality. Flesh is white, firm and juicy. It has been regarded to be the finest eating apple in the world. | 9/17 |
| Crimson Topaz | A dessert apple, the fruit is medium in size, crisp and juicy with good flavor. | 9/18 |
| Red Delicious | Red Delicious apples are an American classic with mildly sweet flavors and only a few notes of acidity | 9/20 |
| Fuji | Developed in Japan, an all-American cross of Red Delicious and Ralls Janet. A very attractive modern apple, crisp, sweet-flavored, and keeps well. | 9/20 |
| Jonagold | A very popular variety, with a good flavor. It inherits many of the good qualities of its parents Jonathan and Golden Delicious. | 9/20 |
| Acey MacIntosh | Spartan Apples are an early cross of Macintosh and Orange Pippin. They are perfect for cooking or eating and have the distinct crispness of the Macintosh and the sweetness and juiciness of the Pippins. The skin color is red to deep crimson, and they are smaller in size. Keep in the fridge for best freshness. These apples also go by the name Acey Mac. |
9/20 |
| Golden Delicious | A large, yellowish-green skinned apple, very sweet to the taste. It is a favorite for salads, applesauce, and apple butter. | 9/24 |
| Super Chief Delicious | One of the best red sports of Red Delicious. Starts out as a stripe and fills into a solid red. Taste is sweet, juicy, aromatic and very delicious with hardly any acidity. | 9/25 |
| Morning Mist Fuji | An early ripening Fuji. A cross of Red Delicious and Ralls Janet. A very attractive modern apple, crisp, sweet-flavored, and keeps well. | 9/25 |
| Jonamac | Medium size, firm fruit with 90% dark red color over a greenish background. Flesh firm, crisp, high quality with flavor like Mcintosh. | 9/26 |
| Empire | One of the best Mcintosh-style apples, with a good sweet vinous flavor. | 9/28 |
| Ace Red Delicious | A variety of Red Delicious — America’s favorite red apple. This apple is shiny dark red or striped reddish-yellow skin and is tender, crisp, juicy, and has a mild flavor for fresh eating. |
10/1 |
| Fortune | A very good North American eating apple with a “spicy” flavor. Fruit large, with an attractive color. Flesh yellow. | 10/1 |
| Hampshire macintosh | Mcintosh apples are a mildly tart fruit has a soft texture when cooked. The flavor is generally sweet with refreshing acidity and a hint of wine – often referred to as “vinous”. You get the most flavor when it is immediately picked from the tree. However, they store well and can retain most of their flavor for a long time. |
10/1 |
| MacIntosh | Mcintosh apples are a mildly tart fruit has a soft texture when cooked. The flavor is generally sweet with refreshing acidity and a hint of wine – often referred to as “vinous”. You get the most flavor when it is immediately picked from the tree. However, they store well and can retain most of their flavor for a long time. |
10/1 |
| Ida Red | Sweetly tart, juicy with firm pale yellow-green flesh, sometimes tinted rosy pink. Excellent for sauce, cooking, baking, and pies. Good for eating, salads, and freezing. | 10/4 |
| Shizuka | Large, yellow with a red-orange blush. Sweeter with less acid than Mutsu, but excellent. Buttery, strong fruity flavors, almost tropical. Some type of pineapple essence. | 10/4 |
| Lady | Very distinctive in both flavor and color, this apple has an exceptionally sweet to tart taste with a firm and juicy flesh. Its skin is yellow, covered with a red to pink blush. Its creamy white flesh is highly crisp and resistant to browning when sliced. | 10/6 |
| Crimson Crisp | Small to medium. Very bright mid-range red over yellow. Extremely crisp. Very good, rich flavor. Sweet/sharp flavor, spicy | 10/9 |
| Cameo | A modern sweet variety, reminiscent of Red Delicious. | 10/10 |
| Mutsu | A cross between Yellow Delicious and Indo. Fruit is very large, firm and juicy with excellent dessert and processing qualities. A versatile dual-purpose apple, sharp but still pleasant to eat fresh. Also known as Crispin. | 10/14 |
| Suncrisp | Good looking yellow apple with a 0-40% orange-red blush. Flavor is sweet yet mildly subacid, said to be intense. Cream colored flesh, not prone to browning. Fruit can be stored up to 6 months in cold storage. | 10/16 |
| Astec Fuji | Reddest blush Fuji sport on the market and consistently colors to full red. Fruit is juicy, sweet and crisp. | 10/20 |
| Rome Beauty | An extremely attractive and productive red cooking apple. The Rome apple is crunchy enough for satisfying eating and not too sweet. This also makes it a solid apple for baking; the pieces hold their shape well and bake up nicely. |
10/20 |
| Stayman | An old American dual-purpose apple variety, popular in Virginia. Descended from Winesap and in most respects an even better apple. | 10/20 |
| Enterprise | A modern American late-season disease-resistant apple with a sharp flavor and good keeping qualities. | 10/24 |
| Winesap | Often known as Virginia Winesap, a tart small apple, and like many US heirloom varieties, keeps well in store. |
10/24 |
| Granny Smith | Granny Smith apples have a bright green skin that is often speckled with faint white lenticels (spots). Medium to large and round in shape, they are a firm and juicy apple with thick skin. Their flesh is bright white and crisp in texture with a tart, acidic, yet subtly sweet flavor. | 11/8 |
| Gold Rush | Best known for its remarkable keeping qualities (10-11 months) and sweet crisp flavor. Goldrush resists oxidation when cut, making a very yellow sauce or firm crisp slices for baking. |
11/10 |
| Pink Lady | The fruit is medium to large, crisp with a sweet-tart flavor and has a long storage life. It develops full flavor after four weeks in storage. |
11/14 |
Please note: These dates are approximations – please call to confirm availability
