Jonagold Apples

Exceptionally. Juiciness is one of Jonagold’s defining qualities and a large part of why it eats so well raw — the flesh is firm but floods when you bite it.

That juice is also why it behaves well in a skillet or a baked apple: there is enough moisture in the fruit that it does not dry out before it softens.

Yes — reliably medium-large to large, and under favourable orchard conditions very large indeed. Cornell’s commercial-variety notes specifically flag excessive size as something growers sometimes have to manage by thinning.

In the kitchen that is pure advantage. Five or six Jonagold fill a 9-inch pie where seven or eight of an average apple would be needed, and the broad cavity suits stuffed baked apples.

Very good indeed, and this is where most Jonagold is eaten. The combination of size, juice and rich sweet-tart flavour makes it a genuinely satisfying dessert apple rather than merely a sweet one.

Serve it cold. Chilling firms the flesh and sharpens the acidity, and Jonagold rewards that more than a low-acid apple would.

Excellent. A crisp is where a weak apple disappears entirely under oats, butter and brown sugar — and Jonagold has enough sweetness and acidity to still taste of apple at the end of it.

Its size helps too: four or five apples fill a dish. Add a squeeze of lemon if your fruit is late-season and has mellowed in storage.

Useful, particularly in a blend. Jonagold brings generous juice, real sugar and genuine acidity, which is a better contribution than a purely sweet apple can make.

What it does not bring is much body, so on its own the cider can taste a little simple. Blend it with a russet such as Golden Russet, or with Winesap for sharpness.

One of the best apples we grow for it. The size gives a broad cavity that takes a generous filling, and the skin is tough enough to hold the fruit together through the bake.

Core without cutting through the base, fill with oats, brown sugar, raisins, cinnamon and butter, add half an inch of water to the dish and bake 35 to 45 minutes at 350°F.

Apple flesh and skin are generally considered safe for dogs in small amounts. Remove the core and the seeds — apple seeds contain amygdalin, and the core is a choking and obstruction risk.

Jonagold is large, so cut it into sensible pieces rather than handing over anything whole. Any apple is a treat rather than a food. Ask your veterinarian about your own dog — we grow apples, we are not veterinarians.

Five to six for a 9-inch double-crust pie, rather than the seven or eight a recipe usually assumes. Jonagold runs large, and you are still aiming for 6 to 8 cups of slices.

That is a real advantage in the kitchen: less peeling, less coring, and fewer awkward half-apples left over.

For pie and tart, most bakers do — the skin is thin but tends to separate into strips over a long bake. For a crisp or crumble it is a matter of taste.

For sauce and apple butter, leave it on: the skin adds pectin and the red gives the sauce a rosy tint. For whole baked apples the skin is essential — it is what holds the fruit together.

One of the best, and the size is why. A large Jonagold has a broad cavity that takes a generous filling, and the skin holds the fruit together through the bake.

Core without going through the base, fill with oats, brown sugar, raisins, cinnamon and butter, add half an inch of water to the dish, and bake 35 to 45 minutes at 350°F.

Sharp aged cheddar is the natural partner — the salt and the tang meet Jonagold's honeyed acidity halfway. Gouda picks up the honey note, and a blue cheese works against the sweetness.

Because the apple is large, it cuts into big handsome slices that hold their shape on a board rather than wilting.

A medium Jonagold — about 230 grams — is roughly 115 to 125 calories. A small one is nearer 90 to 100; a large one runs 145 to 165.

The figure to work from is 52 calories per 100 grams, from USDA, for a raw apple with the skin on. Jonagold fruit runs large, so the per-apple numbers matter more here than the per-100-gram ones.

A large Jonagold of about 300 grams comes to roughly 145 to 165 calories.

Across the sizes we pack: small (~180 g) about 94, medium (~230 g) about 120, large (~300 g) about 156. Multiply the weight in grams by 0.52 for a close estimate at any size.

A small Jonagold of about 180 grams is roughly 90 to 100 calories.

A kitchen scale beats guessing from the word on the bag — and the apple count on a case is the quickest guide, since a 72-count fruit is considerably larger than a 125-count.

Per 100 grams of raw Jonagold with the skin on: about 52 calories, 13.81 g carbohydrate, 2.4 g fiber, 0.26 g protein, 0.17 g fat, 107 mg potassium and 85.56 g water.

For a medium apple of about 230 grams that is roughly 120 calories, 32 g carbohydrate and 5.5 g fiber. The full table by size is in the nutrition section above.

About 29 to 35 grams of total carbohydrate in a medium apple, of which roughly 5.5 grams is fiber — so approximately 26 grams of net carbs.

Per 100 grams that is 13.81 grams. That is typical for an apple.

Roughly 32 grams of total carbohydrate in a medium apple, with about 5.5 grams of that being dietary fiber.

Essentially all of an apple’s calories are carbohydrate — there is almost no fat and, in this cultivar, about 0.26 grams of protein per 100 grams.

About 22 to 26 grams in a medium apple, all of it the fruit’s own — nothing is added. That is 10.4 grams per 100 grams of fruit.

Jonagold carries substantial sugar from its Golden Delicious parent and real acidity from Jonathan, which is why it tastes rich rather than merely sweet. That is a flavour judgement from the orchard, not a laboratory figure.

About 5.5 grams in a medium apple with the skin on — 2.4 grams per 100 grams.

A large Jonagold delivers noticeably more fiber than a standard medium apple, simply because there is more of it. Peeling costs you roughly a third of it.

Very little of either: about 0.6 grams of protein and 0.4 grams of fat in a medium apple, and virtually no sodium.

Apples are almost entirely water and carbohydrate — Jonagold is about 85.56 percent water by weight.

About 107 mg per 100 grams, so roughly 246 mg in a medium apple.

That is typical for an apple.

About 10.6 mg in a medium apple — 4.6 mg per 100 grams.

Apples are not a major vitamin C source next to citrus; an orange carries roughly ten times as much. What there is sits mostly just under the skin and degrades with heat, so a raw unpeeled apple retains more of it than a baked one.

For fiber, yes — roughly a third of it sits in the skin, along with most of the fruit’s colour compounds.

Jonagold skin is thin and tender. Most bakers peel it for pie, but it is pleasant raw and essential if you are making whole baked apples. Rinse under running water and rub with your hands before eating, as with any fresh fruit.

Roughly two large, three medium or four small apples make a pound — three medium is the standard working assumption in American recipes.

Jonagold runs large — often two or three to the pound. For a 9-inch pie, five or six will do what seven or eight of an average apple would.

A limb sport of Jonagold discovered in Belgium and introduced in the 1980s, selected for much darker red colour. It is one of the best known of the seventy-plus Jonagold sports on record.

It is the same apple to eat. Jonagored and its siblings were chosen for appearance, because packers and shoppers reward colour — not because anybody improved the flavour.

Cornell material records more than seventy — an unusually rich mutation history for one cultivar, and a direct measure of how commercially important Jonagold became.

Almost all of them were selected for one thing: more red. Packers and shoppers reward colour, so growers propagated every branch that produced a darker apple. The flavour is essentially unchanged across the family.

No. The sports were selected for appearance, not flavour, and a Jonagored or a Rubinstar eats like a Jonagold. Colour on this variety tells you about the strain and the sunlight, not about the eating.

It is the same story as Red Delicious, whose four generations of colour sports made the apple darker without making it better — though Jonagold has fared far better than that, because the underlying fruit was good to begin with.

Not at all. Triploidy affects pollination, vigour and fruit size — it has no bearing on flavour, texture or how the apple cooks.

It matters only if you are planting a tree, in which case it matters a great deal: Jonagold needs two compatible diploid varieties nearby, and cannot pollinate anything itself.

Yes. Because Jonagold is triploid its pollen is effectively sterile, so it cannot fertilise a partner and cannot fertilise itself. You plant Jonagold plus two compatible diploid varieties that will pollinate each other as well as the Jonagold.

There is a catch worth knowing: Cornell specifically records Jonagold as incompatible with Golden Delicious as a pollinizer — despite Golden Delicious being one of its own parents. Gala, Fuji, Empire and flowering crabapples are safer choices.

Mutsu is the one we grow that behaves identically — and, like Jonagold, it is a large Golden Delicious child. Bramley, Gravenstein, Belle de Boskoop, Blenheim Orange, Rhode Island Greening and Ribston Pippin are the other well-known triploids.

Notice the pattern: that list is close to a roll-call of the great cooking and cider apples. Triploidy brings vigorous trees and big fruit, which suits a kitchen. It just complicates the orchard.

Rootstock decides it. On a dwarfing rootstock such as M.9 or B.9 expect a light first crop in 2 to 4 years; semi-dwarf 4 to 6; standard seedling rootstock 6 to 10.

Jonagold is vigorous and tends toward large fruit, so thinning matters more than on an average variety — Cornell's own commercial notes flag excessive size as something growers have to manage.

You can grow a tree; it will not be a Jonagold. Apples do not come true from seed, and a triploid's seeds are additionally few and often unviable.

Every Jonagold on earth is grafted from that single 1943 Geneva seedling — and every one of its seventy-odd sports is grafted from a mutated branch of one of those grafts.

No — we are a fruit farm, not a nursery. We ship apples, not trees. Jonagold is widely available from fruit-tree nurseries; tell them your USDA zone, and tell them you need two pollinators rather than one.

What we can do is send you the fruit. See Ready to Ship for what is leaving the farm now, or the listings above for Jonagold specifically.

Fuji is sweeter, denser and much lower in acid — bred for sweetness above all. Jonagold is more aromatic, noticeably tangier and generally larger, with a more traditional crisp texture rather than Fuji’s hard density.

For pure snacking sweetness, Fuji. For an apple that also holds its own in a pie, Jonagold. Fuji is the far better keeper of the two.

Jonathan is the tarter, brighter, more old-fashioned parent — smaller, with a spicy edge and firm flesh. Jonagold is much larger, sweeter and rounder, with the acidity softened by its Golden Delicious side.

If you find Jonagold a little too sweet, Jonathan is exactly where to go next. They cook very differently too: Jonathan breaks down more readily, Jonagold holds its slices better.

They have a great deal in common — both very large, both triploid, both children of Golden Delicious, both genuinely dual-purpose. Mutsu is greener, sharper and slightly coarser; Jonagold is redder, sweeter and more aromatic.

For a pie that needs acidity, Mutsu. For a large apple with more honeyed richness, Jonagold. Both give you the same practical advantage: fewer apples to peel.

Different jobs. Granny Smith is sharply tart with little sweetness, so it supplies structure and acid but usually wants sugar and a partner. Jonagold brings sweetness and acidity together and can carry a pie with less help.

Granny Smith holds its shape a little more reliably. A good many excellent pies use both — it is a pairing rather than a contest.

Golden Delicious crossed with Jonathan — and we grow both, which is unusual enough to be worth saying.

Golden Delicious supplied the sweetness, aroma and dessert quality; Jonathan supplied the acidity, the red colour and a more assertive character. Tasting all three side by side makes the pedigree obvious.

1943, at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, New York — now part of Cornell AgriTech.

Watch out for the 1953 figure that circulates widely: that is the year the seedling was selected and given the breeding number N.Y. 43013-1, not the year of the cross. The “43” in that number records the real date.

1968, released by the Cornell pomologist Roger Way — twenty-five years after the cross was made.

That gap is normal rather than remarkable. An apple has to prove itself across many seasons, blocks and weather patterns before anyone will plant an orchard of it.

The name is its own pedigree: Jona from Jonathan, gold from Golden Delicious.

Very few apple names tell you the parentage before you have taken a bite. Compare it with Mutsu, named for a Japanese province, or SnapDragon, named for the noise it makes.

Not in the usual sense. An heirloom is generally an older variety that arrived by chance or was passed down rather than deliberately bred, and Jonagold is a documented twentieth-century breeding-programme cultivar with a known cross, a known number and a known release date.

If you want genuine heirlooms we grow plenty — Baldwin, Roxbury Russet, Northern Spy and others are on the heirloom page.

Roger Way, the Cornell pomologist who carried the selection through to commercial release in 1968. The cross itself dates to 1943 at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva.

The selection carried the breeding number N.Y. 43013-1 before it was named — the “43” recording the year of the cross, which is a useful reminder of how long these things take.

Yes, and that is unusual. We grow Jonathan, which gave Jonagold its acidity, colour and backbone, and Golden Delicious, which gave it sweetness, aroma and dessert quality.

Tasting all three together is genuinely instructive — you can pick out which parent contributed what, which is rarely so obvious in an apple pedigree.

Ready to Ship lists every variety and package leaving the farm right now, and Harvest Times carries the seasonal calendar with our published 2026 dates.

If a variety is still on the tree it will be under Apple Crop Growing 2026, grouped by roughly when we expect to pick it.

Partly size — large fruit is awkward for standard retail bags and trays — and partly the fact that American retail consolidated hard around a handful of names: Gala, Fuji, Honeycrisp, Granny Smith.

Jonagold went the other way and became a major commercial apple in Europe, particularly Belgium and Germany, where most of its colour sports were selected. It is a bigger deal abroad than at home.

For baking, take the largest count you can — fewer apples to peel for the same pie, and a better cavity for stuffed baked apples. For lunchboxes and fresh eating, smaller fruit is easier to handle.

We pack by apple count rather than forcing everything to one size, so a 72-count case holds noticeably larger fruit than a 125-count case of the same weight. Size has no bearing on flavour.

Because Jonagold is picked around mid October and sells through.

Check Ready to Ship for the varieties that are available today, or Harvest Times to see what is coming and roughly when.