Red Delicious Apples

They are sweet, mild and low in acidity, sometimes with light floral, melon or ripe-pear notes.

Usually not. They are among the gentler, lower-acid apples and suit people who prefer sweetness without a strong tang.

Fresh, properly matured and well-cooled fruit can be crisp and juicy. Texture softens when apples are overmature, held too warm or stored too long.

Mealiness can result from overmaturity, prolonged warm handling, storage age or strain differences. Dark red skin alone does not guarantee ideal internal maturity.

Many Red Delicious strains have a noticeable peel, especially compared with thinner-skinned apples. Slicing the fruit thinly can make the peel less prominent.

Because most people have only ever eaten a bad one. Red Delicious became the most planted apple in America by the 1980s, and the industry selected hard for what shipped and looked good on a shelf — deep color, thick skin, long storage — rather than for flavor. Then it was held in storage for months.

A Red Delicious eaten eight months out of cold storage is exactly what its reputation says: soft, mealy, thick-skinned and faintly sweet. A Red Delicious eaten fresh off the tree in autumn is a genuinely good apple — crisp, juicy, aromatic and mild. The variety did not decline; the supply chain did.

Buy them fresh and keep them cold. Mealiness is the cell walls breaking down over time, and it happens faster the warmer the apple is — several times faster on a counter than in a refrigerator.

Practical rules: buy in autumn rather than late spring; choose fruit that feels rock-hard and heavy; get it into the crisper drawer, loosely bagged, as soon as you get home; and eat Red Delicious sooner than you would a Fuji or a Granny Smith. This is not a variety to lay in for February.

Mildly. There is real sugar there — about 10.1 grams per 100 grams, close to a Gala — but the flavor reads as gentle rather than rich, because Red Delicious carries very little acid and few of the aromatic compounds that give an apple complexity.

What it is not is tart. If you want sweetness with more behind it, Fuji is the apple; if you want sweetness with some bite, Honeycrisp.

Fresh from the tree, yes — crisp, juicy, aromatic and pleasantly mild. It did not become the best-selling apple in America for a century by being bad.

Out of eight months of storage, no, and that is how most people meet it. The honest summary is that Red Delicious has a narrower window of being good than almost any other variety, and the modern grocery supply chain is very well designed to miss it. Buy it in autumn and judge it then.

A medium Red Delicious — about 190 grams — is roughly 105 to 120 calories. A small one is nearer 85 to 95; a large one runs 130 to 145.

The figure to work from is 59 calories per 100 grams, from USDA, for a raw apple with the skin on. That puts it just below Fuji at 63 and just above Granny Smith at 58, and above the generic raw-apple figure of 52.

A large Red Delicious of about 235 grams comes to roughly 130 to 145 calories.

Across the sizes we pack: small (~155 g) about 91, medium (~190 g) about 112, large (~235 g) about 139. Multiply the weight in grams by 0.59 for a close estimate at any size.

A small Red Delicious of about 155 grams is roughly 85 to 95 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 Red Delicious with the skin on: about 59 calories, 14.06 g carbohydrate, 2.3 g fiber, 0.27 g protein, 0.2 g fat, 104 mg potassium and 85.33 g water.

For a medium apple of about 190 grams that is roughly 112 calories, 27 g carbohydrate and 4.4 g fiber. The full table by size is in the nutrition section above.

About 25 to 29 grams of total carbohydrate in a medium apple, of which roughly 4.4 grams is fiber — so approximately 23 grams of net carbs.

Per 100 grams that is 14.06 grams. Red Delicious sits between Fuji and Granny Smith, which is roughly where it sits on sweetness too.

Roughly 27 grams of total carbohydrate in a medium apple, with about 4.4 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 0.27 grams of protein per 100 grams.

About 18 to 22 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.

Red Delicious tastes sweeter than the number suggests because it carries very little acid to push against the sugar, and few of the aromatic compounds that give an apple complexity.

About 4.4 grams in a medium apple with the skin on — 2.3 grams per 100 grams.

Red Delicious is a little below the apple average, at 2.3 g per 100 g. Peeling costs you roughly a third of it.

Very little of either: about 0.5 grams of protein and 0.4 grams of fat in a medium apple, and virtually no sodium.

Apples are almost entirely water and carbohydrate — Red Delicious is about 85.33 percent water by weight.

About 104 mg per 100 grams, so roughly 198 mg in a medium apple.

That is slightly below the apple average of 107 mg. Sodium is negligible.

About 8.7 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.

On this variety the skin matters more than most: Red Delicious carries more of the deep red anthocyanin pigment than almost any apple grown, and peeling discards essentially all of it. It is also thick and slightly bitter, which is the main thing people object to about the variety. 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.

Red Delicious is frequently packed large, so check the apple count on the case rather than assuming three to the pound.

Fresh eating is their signature use because it highlights their sweetness, color and juicy texture.

Yes, especially in blended recipes. Pair them with a firmer or tarter apple such as Rome, Northern Spy or Winesap for stronger structure and balance.

They make a sweet, mild sauce. Blending with McIntosh or another aromatic, tart apple adds complexity and can reduce the need for added sugar.

They contribute sweetness and juice to a blend, but cider usually gains character from sharper or more aromatic apples such as Winesap or McIntosh.

Yes. Their red peel provides color and their mild sweetness pairs well with cabbage, celery, walnuts, sharp cheddar, blue cheese and tangy dressings.

Fresh eating above all — that is what the variety was selected for, and where a fresh-picked one is genuinely good. It slices cleanly for lunchboxes, fruit trays and cheese boards, and its mildness works next to strong flavors rather than fighting them.

It is also the classic choice where an apple has to look like an apple: caramel apples, fruit baskets, centerpieces, teacher gifts. Where it is weakest is baking — it softens and goes bland under heat. See the recipes section for what it does do well.

Honestly, no — not on their own. Red Delicious softens badly under heat and has almost no acidity, so a pie made entirely from it tends to be watery, bland and structureless.

If Red Delicious is what you have, fix both problems: use no more than a third of the filling, put Granny Smith or Stayman alongside it for structure, add a tablespoon of lemon juice, and slice thicker than usual. For a pie apple by choice, Granny Smith is the answer.

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.

Red Delicious is soft enough that most dogs manage it easily, which some owners prefer to a rock-hard apple. Any apple is a treat rather than a food. Ask your veterinarian about your own dog, particularly a small one or one on a controlled diet — we grow apples, we are not veterinarians.

For fresh juice, yes — it gives a sweet, mild, pale juice that children in particular like, and it presses well.

In cider it is a filler rather than a feature. It is useful as a sweet base at perhaps 20 to 30 percent of a blend, with a sharp apple such as Granny Smith or Stayman supplying the backbone.

They are the traditional look — a deep red apple on a stick is the image everyone pictures — and the smooth skin dips cleanly.

Flavor is the trade-off. Caramel is very sweet, and a mild sweet apple underneath gives you sugar on sugar. If you want the classic appearance, use Red Delicious; if you want the better-tasting caramel apple, use Granny Smith. Wash and dry thoroughly first — the natural skin wax is the usual reason caramel slides off.

Honeycrisp.com generally begins Red Delicious harvest around mid-September. Weather, orchard and strain can move the date, so live product availability is the final guide.

No. Climate, elevation, strain and the season's weather all affect harvest timing.

Refrigerate them promptly, ideally in the crisper drawer or another cool, humid area. Keep bruised fruit separate and avoid warm countertop storage for long periods.

Research references to very long storage describe commercial controlled-atmosphere systems. An ordinary home refrigerator does not reproduce those conditions, so the claim should not be treated as a home-storage promise.

Red Delicious is a mid-to-late apple, picked from mid-September into October across most of the United States. Commercial storage then carries it nearly year-round.

With this variety more than most, the distinction matters — fresh-picked and long-stored Red Delicious are almost different apples. See Harvest Times for where this year's crop stands and Ready to Ship for what is leaving the farm today.

In a cold crisper drawer at 33 to 38°F, expect four to eight weeks of good eating quality at home. Commercial controlled-atmosphere storage stretches that far longer, but texture is quietly lost the whole time.

That is the key difference from a true keeper. A Fuji or a Granny Smith tastes much the same in February as in November; a Red Delicious does not. Buy it to eat soon.

The five pronounced lobes around the calyx are a natural shape trait of the variety. They create the familiar five-pointed base seen in classic apple imagery.

Not necessarily. Some strains develop deep color early, so growers also consider background color, starch, firmness, seeds and flavor when judging maturity.

Deep red to nearly black-red, usually solid rather than striped, over a pale yellow-green ground color you can sometimes see in the stem cavity. Older strains were lighter and more striped.

The darkening is a century of deliberate selection. Growers repeatedly chose redder bud sports, and each generation of strain was darker than the last — which is why a modern Red Delicious looks almost nothing like the original Hawkeye.

Partly the apple and partly the packing house. Red Delicious produces a heavy natural wax bloom on its skin, and its smooth, thick cuticle reflects light unusually well.

Commercial packers also wash the fruit, which strips that natural layer, then apply a thin food-grade coating to replace it and stop moisture loss. On a dark red apple the effect is obvious. Rinse and rub before eating — standard advice for any fresh fruit.

No. Red Delicious has produced many bud sports selected for color, growth habit, maturity and other traits, so fruit sold under the name can come from different strains.

No. Historical descriptions emphasize red-and-gold striping, while many later sports were selected for deeper and more uniform red color.

A bud sport is a naturally occurring change in a bud or branch. Growers can graft a desirable sport to reproduce traits such as darker color, compact growth or different maturity timing.

They turned one Iowa seedling into a large variety family. The sports document decades of selection for color, tree habit, harvest behavior and market presentation.

Richared is an early first-generation Red Delicious color sport documented from 1915.

Starking Red is a first-generation Red Delicious sport and a key link in the studied lineage leading to Starkrimson and later sports.

Starkrimson is a well-known second-generation Red Delicious sport documented from 1953 and associated with dark color and spur-type growth.

They are named later-generation Red Delicious sports. Campbell Redchief is documented from 1967, while Red Chief is documented from 1974.

Vallee Spur is a fourth-generation sport of Campbell Redchief documented from 1989.

A spur-type tree carries much of its fruiting wood on short, compact spurs. The growth habit can help growers manage tree size and orchard productivity.

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

Spur-type Red Delicious strains, which set fruit on short spurs rather than long shoots, tend to come into bearing sooner and stay more compact — which is exactly why growers adopted them.

Dwarf on M.9 reaches about 8 to 10 feet and needs permanent staking, since dwarfing rootstocks have brittle, shallow roots. Semi-dwarf makes 12 to 15 feet; a standard tree goes to 20 to 25.

A spur-type strain on the same rootstock will be roughly a third smaller and noticeably more compact, with fruit held close to the branches.

Red Delicious is not self-fertile and needs a different variety flowering at the same time. Golden Delicious is the classic partner, and Gala, Fuji, Granny Smith and most flowering crabapples all work.

Avoid Mutsu, Jonagold and Gravenstein as the pollen partner: those are triploid varieties with sterile pollen. A crabapple within about 50 feet is the simplest insurance.

You can grow a tree, but it will not be a Red Delicious. Apples do not come true from seed — every pip is a cross between the mother apple and whatever pollinated its blossom.

Every Red Delicious on earth traces back by grafting to the single seedling Jesse Hiatt refused to kill in his Iowa orchard in the 1870s. That tree itself came from exactly such a random pip, which is the whole reason the story is worth telling.

No — we are a fruit farm, not a nursery. We ship apples, not trees. For trees, go to a dedicated fruit-tree nursery and tell them your USDA zone so they can match the rootstock and strain to your site.

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 Red Delicious specifically.

Red Delicious is milder and lower in acidity. Honeycrisp usually has a louder crunch and brighter sweet-tart flavor, while Fuji is typically denser and very sweet.

They are related — Delicious is one of Fuji's two parents — and Fuji is comprehensively the better apple. Both are sweet and low in acid, but Fuji is denser, far juicier, considerably sweeter, and it holds its texture in storage where Red Delicious goes mealy.

Red Delicious keeps the elongated shape and the five-pointed base; Fuji is round and often lopsided. If you grew up disappointed by Red Delicious, Fuji is the apple that inherited its virtues without its faults.

Gala for most purposes. Both are mild and sweet with low acid, but Gala is crisper, more aromatic, more consistent out of storage, and it does not go mealy nearly as fast.

Gala is smaller and striped orange-red over yellow rather than solid dark red. Red Delicious wins on appearance and on that five-pointed silhouette; Gala wins on eating.

Almost everything. Honeycrisp is sweet-tart and explosively juicy, with oversized cells that burst rather than shear. Red Delicious is mild, low-acid and far softer, with much thicker skin.

Honeycrisp is the apple that displaced Red Delicious from the top of the American market, and it did so on texture. Red Delicious is a fraction of the price, and a fresh-picked one in autumn is better than its reputation allows.

For the same mild, sweet, low-acid profile with better texture: Gala, Fuji (its own offspring), Ambrosia and Golden Delicious, which shares the name but not the parentage.

For the same deep red appearance: Empire, Jonathan and Rome all look the part. If it is specifically the five-pointed shape you want, nothing else has it — that silhouette is Red Delicious alone.

Red Delicious began as a chance seedling in Jesse Hiatt's orchard near Peru, Iowa. Modern horticultural sources generally date its discovery to 1872.

Jesse Hiatt called the apple Hawkeye. Stark Brothers later marketed it as Delicious, and the name Red Delicious distinguished it from Golden Delicious.

Hiatt named it Hawkeye in honor of Iowa, the Hawkeye State, where the chance seedling grew.

Yes. The modern horticultural literature generally uses 1872 for the discovery of the original Iowa seedling, although the apple's important contest and commercial dates came later.

An unidentified sample won at Stark Brothers' International New Fruit Show in 1893, but the grower's identity was not successfully recorded.

Hawkeye returned to the competition in 1894 with Jesse Hiatt identified. Stark Brothers then acquired propagation rights and introduced it commercially.

The red name became useful after Golden Delicious entered the nursery trade. It clearly separated the older red apple from the unrelated yellow variety.

In historical references, Delicious usually means the variety that became known as Red Delicious. Today, Red Delicious also functions as a family name covering many later sports and strains.

Golden Delicious is not a yellow sport of Red Delicious. It arose as a separate chance seedling in West Virginia; the shared word “Delicious” is a naming connection, not proof that one is a color form of the other.

A Quaker farmer near Peru, Iowa, who in the early 1870s found a seedling apple growing where he had not planted one. He cut it down. It grew back. He cut it down again, and it grew back again — at which point he let it be, reportedly saying: "If thee must live, thee may."

The fruit it eventually bore was, in his own words, the best-tasting apple in the whole world. He called it Hawkeye after his state, and spent years failing to get anyone interested — until an 1893 fruit competition run by Stark Brothers changed everything.

It was the most planted apple in America for most of the twentieth century, and it lost that position for one reason: the industry optimised it for the wrong things. Decades of selecting redder, tougher, longer-storing bud sports produced fruit that looked superb in a display and ate poorly by the time it got to anyone.

When Honeycrisp, Gala and Fuji arrived offering real texture, shoppers moved fast. Gala passed Red Delicious in United States production in 2018. It remains a major export apple and a major juice apple.

Yes — Delicious is the original name. Stark Brothers bought the rights to Jesse Hiatt's Hawkeye in 1894 and renamed it Delicious.

The "Red" was added later to distinguish it from Golden Delicious, an entirely unrelated variety that Stark Brothers also acquired and marketed under the Delicious name. The two apples share a brand, not a family tree.

Yes, when the product shown above is available for the desired destination. Review the shipping guide for current packing, timing and location details.

Right here — the product listings above this guide show exactly what is available and shipping from our farm today, with current sizes and packaging.

If nothing is listed, the crop is not ready or the season has passed. Harvest Times shows where the season stands and Ready to Ship lists everything leaving the farm now.

Because fruit grows to the size the season and the tree give it, and we pack by apple count rather than forcing everything to one size. A 72-count case holds larger apples than a 125-count case of the same weight.

Red Delicious tends to run large, and large fruit is what most people picture when they think of this variety — it is the apple of fruit baskets and lunchboxes for exactly that reason.