Apples

(Updated July 2025)

We love apples! We chose varieties that are disease-resistant, tasty, and long-keeping, apples for eating fresh, dehydrating, baking, and cider.

Our apple orchard is still small (though growing!) and several years away from any real production, but this is what we’ve planted.

Arkansas Black: This one seems to be one of the best ones for our area, fruiting even when late frosts zap other varieties. Great flavor! We had one lone Arkansas Black apple last year and perhaps a half dozen this year.

Ashmead’s Kernel: This is one of our favorites–the fruit is a complex mix of spices and sweet and tartness. They’re always scraggly looking trees, and not very heavy fruiters, but the flavor makes up for that.

Baldwin: From Burnt Ridge. Supposed to be an excellent baking and excellent cider apple. So far, this has been our most generously growing tree. Still no fruit in 2025.

Black Limbertwig: This is also supposed to be “spicy and aromatic”, good for both eating and making cider. It’s been very slow-growing on our farm, so I don’t expect any fruit anytime soon. The”limber” part of the name is supposed to indicate its weeping habit, but our two trees haven’t yet made any branches. Still barely after four years??? We put in a robust new tree from 39th Parallel Nursery on M106 rootstock, on the bottom of our property where it might get more water.

Black Twig: Put in a sturdy whip from 39th Parallel Nursery in 2025. This is an old Tennessee variety introduced around 1830 as a seedling on the farm of Major Rankin Toole. It ‘s supposed to be a tart apple, good for fresh eating and tannic which adds body to cider.

Bramley’s Seedling: Supposed to be an excellent cooking apple, with strong apple flavor and lots of acidity. Finally getting some growth in 2025.

Clark’s Crab: Seedling from Clark’s breeding experiments. They’re reported to be clustered like grapes. So far very vigorous trees–hope we get fruit soon. Lots of growth, but still no fruit in 2025.

Dabinette: Supposed to be an excellent bitter-sweet cider apple. Has been very slow-growing on our farm.

Dolgo Crab: Golf-ball sized apples that have added some zing to our earliest cider-making efforts. Yeah!–finally a couple dozen bright red crabapples in 2025.

Enterprise: Every single Enterprise we’ve ever planted has turned into a beautiful, well-proportioned tree. Seemingly cedar apple rust immune, bearing heavily annually. Large, juicy, crisp apples. We love our mature in-town Enterprise tree!

Everest Crab: Absolutely beautiful bloomer! This one bloomed the very first year we grafted it, and made dozens of crabapples for the first time in 2025.

Francesca’s Seedling: A tree from a friend who likes planting apple seeds. She says this is her favorite apple, and it seems to be disease-resistant. It has not been happy on our farm, though, and we’ll probably eliminate it.

Franklin: Supposed to be an excellent cider apple for blends with high acidity, tannins, and sugars.

Freedom: Supposed to be one of the most disease-resistant apples out there, good for both fresh eating and making cider.

Golden Russet: Supposed to be a good cider apple as well as eating out of hand. Though listed as resistant to cedar apple rust, it seems to have some susceptibility. Early in the season, it gets many orange spots, though later leaves are okay, and the tree has not seemed to have suffered from it.

Harrison’s: Supposed to be an excellent cider apple, pressing into a dark rich cider.

Hudson’s Golden Gem: This one also seems to be a bit susceptible to cedar apple rust, though the trees have not seemed to suffer too much.

King David: Put in a sturdy whip from 39th Parallel Nursery in 2025. King David was discovered in a fencerow in Durham, Arkansas in the late 1800s, and is thought to be a cross between Jonathan x Arkansas Black. Supposedly it is good for cider, pies, sauce, and eating, and is said to be resistant to scab, cedar apple rust and fireblight. We shall see.

Leopold Aldo: The most vigorous of all our grafted trees. Perhaps it will bear fruit in 2024, and we can see what it’s like. Nope. No fruit in 2025 either. Our friend who obtained the tiny piece of original scionwood says that the fruits are terrible–mushy and tasteless, a shame for such a beautiful vigorous tree.

Liberty: These always make beautiful trees, and bear fruit reliably every year. I find the apples a bit boring. The flavor is supposed to improve upon storage, but I never found that to be true.

Roxbury Russet: Considered the oldest variety of apple in the United States. Pretty vigorous on our farm.

Winesap: Once a major commercial apple, it is now grown mostly by small orchardists, and is supposed to be good for fresh eating, baking, and cider-making.

Wolf River: Planted a sturdy whip from 39th Parallel Nursery in 2025. It’s supposed to be a very hardy variety that is resistant to scab, mildew, fire blight and cedar apple rust, and supposed to produce HUGE apples which are used mainly for cooking.

Yates: Supposed to be good for cider-making and applesauce. It’s been pretty slow-growing so far.