Still New York Growing - Delivered Direct from the Farm to Your Door

Q: Why is nothing listed above?

Because this is the page for apples that have not been picked yet. An empty product area here is the page working as intended, not a fault. What is available today is on Ready to Ship .

Q: Which of these apples keeps the longest?

Fuji , EverCrisp , Goldrush , Pink Lady® and Winesap are the great keepers — all of them hold texture for months in a cold crisper drawer. As a rule the later an apple is picked, the longer it keeps. That is not a coincidence: late varieties evolved to hang through cold nights, and the same qualities that let them do that let them sit in storage.

Q: Which are best for pie and baking?

From this group: Northern Spy , Stayman , Rome , Mutsu , Goldrush and Stark Jumbo are the classic baking apples. Most good pies blend two: something firm and tart for structure and acidity, something sweet to fill it out. Northern Spy and Mutsu are both strong enough to carry a pie alone.

Q: Which are best for fresh eating?

SnapDragon® , EverCrisp , Fuji , Ambrosia , CandyCrisp and Empire are the standouts for eating out of hand. If crunch is what you are after, SnapDragon and EverCrisp are the two to try. If you want sweetness without sharpness, Fuji and Ambrosia.

Q: Which of these will I never find in a supermarket?

Top Secret , Senshu , Shizuka , PoundSweet , Stark Jumbo , Golden Russet and Ludacrisp are effectively unavailable through normal retail. Some are too soft to ship through a distribution chain, some yield too little to interest a packer, and some are simply out of fashion. That is most of the reason a farm like ours exists.

Apple Crop Growing 2026
Still on the Tree in the New York Orchard

36 Varieties • Mid September through November

What We Are Growing, and Roughly When It Will Be Ready

Everything here is still growing for the 2026 crop — not picked, not shipping. As each variety comes off the tree it moves across to Ready to Ship. Full directory and expected windows below.

Not listed above? The crop is still on the tree — see Harvest Times, or Ready to Ship for what is leaving the farm today.

Shipped Fresh from the Farm to Your Door

Still on the Tree: The 2026 Crop

Everything on this page is growing right now. Not picked, not packed, not shipping — still hanging in a New York orchard, putting on sugar through the warm days and cold nights that make an autumn apple worth waiting for.

We keep this page because the alternative is pretending. Plenty of sites will sell you a “fresh” apple in July that has been in a controlled-atmosphere room since the previous October. We would rather show you what is coming, tell you roughly when, and let you decide whether to wait. As each variety comes off the tree it moves to Ready to Ship.

All 36 Varieties Still Growing, by When We Expect to Pick

Windows below come from our own 2026 Harvest Calendar, so the two pages will not disagree. Weather moves everything — a cool September can push a variety back by two weeks. Tap a window to open it.

Mid September (2)

Red Delicious — Sweet, mild and crisp — the deep red classic, better fresh-picked than its reputation.
SnowSweet — Crisp and refreshing, sweet with a hint of richness, and notably slow to brown.

Late September (4)

AutumnCrisp — Extra crisp and juicy, sweet-tart, with slices that resist browning.
CrimsonCrisp — Deep crimson skin, rich sweet-tart flavor, and the darkest apple we grow.
Fuji — The sweetest widely grown apple — dense, juicy and the longest-keeping in the orchard.
Liberty — A sweet-tart McIntosh type, and one of the great old-timers.

Early October (3)

Empire — Sweet-tart, aromatic and dark red — a classic New York snacking apple.
Pinova — Sweet with distinct citrus notes, crisp and refreshing.
Senshu — Sweet, crisp and juicy — a Japanese variety rarely seen in American stores.

Mid October (4)

Golden Russet — Honeyed, nutty and rich under a bronze russet skin. A famous cider heirloom.
Jonagold — Honeyed sweet-tart, large and juicy. Jonathan crossed with Golden Delicious.
Pink Lady® — Crisp, sweet and tangy with a sharp finish — one of the last apples picked.
RubyFrost® — Cornell's NY 2. Bright and crisp, sweet with a tart finish, bred to keep into winter.

October (5)

Golden Delicious — Honey-sweet, mild and juicy — the golden orchard classic.
PoundSweet — A big, sweet old New England apple, traditionally cooked rather than eaten raw.
Shizuka — Mutsu's sister — same parentage, sweeter and less widely known.
SnapDragon® — Cornell's NY 1. Honeycrisp's monster crunch with a sweet vanilla-and-spice flavor.
Stark Jumbo — Exactly what the name promises — an enormous heirloom baking apple.

Late October (10)

Cameo — Sweet-tart and aromatic, crisp and firm. A Washington chance seedling.
CandyCrisp — Sweet, crisp and juicy with low acidity. Easy to like, hard to find.
EverCrisp — Honeycrisp × Fuji, bred for crunch that survives the whole winter.
Fortune — A hint of spice and a Northern Spy cousin — a Thanksgiving favorite.
Mutsu (Crispin) — Large, crisp, juicy and aromatic. Japan's great dual-purpose apple.
Northern Spy — Tart, crisp and juicy. A New York apple from around 1800 and a pie legend.
Spartan — Sweet, crisp and deeply red — a McIntosh child from British Columbia.
Stayman — Rich and spicy, with the balance that makes a serious baking apple.
Top Secret — Crisp, sweet and tart — an exclusive you will not find in a store.
Winesap — Spicy, tart and juicy. Old-time flavor and a famous cider apple.

November (1)

Rome — Mildly tart and firm — the baker's buddy, built to hold its shape.

2026 window not yet published (7)

Ambrosia — Honey-sweet, low acid, crisp and floral. A British Columbia chance seedling.
Cordera — Crisp, juicy and balanced — Cornell-bred, Honeycrisp parentage.
Goldrush — Bold tart-sweet flavor, hard and crisp. A superb keeper and cider apple.
Jersey Mac — Tart, crisp and juicy — an early McIntosh type with a short summer season.
Lady Apples — Tiny, ancient and ornamental — the apple of Christmas wreaths and table settings.
Ludacrisp — Sweet, juicy and crisp, with a wild tropical-punch aroma people either love or query.
WineCrisp — Fruity and sweet, a crisp red apple with genuinely complex flavor.

These are growing for 2026, but we have not posted a date for them yet. Harvest Times is updated through the season.

Why an Apple Is Worth Waiting For

An apple picked before it is ready never catches up. Starch converts to sugar on the tree, and a variety pulled early is starchy, bland and firm in the wrong way — it will soften without ever becoming sweet. This is the single biggest reason supermarket fruit disappoints people.

The late varieties on this list are the clearest case. Fuji, Goldrush, Pink Lady® and EverCrisp all need to hang into the cold, and the cold is exactly what builds their sugar. Pick them in September to beat the weather and you get a completely different, much worse apple.

So the honest answer to “when can I get this?” is sometimes “later than you would like”. The apple decides.

Questions About the 2026 Crop

What people ask us about apples that are still on the tree. Tap a question to open it.

What does “Apple Crop Growing 2026” mean?

These are the varieties still on the tree for the 2026 season — not yet picked, not yet shipping. The page exists so you can see what is coming rather than only what is ready today.

As each variety is harvested it moves across to Ready to Ship. If you want a specific apple, this is the page that tells you it exists and roughly when to come back.

How do I find out exactly when a variety will be ready?

Harvest Times carries our published 2026 dates, updated through the season, plus typical windows for the heirlooms and the less common varieties.

The windows on this page come from that same calendar, so the two will not disagree. Weather moves everything, sometimes by a fortnight.

Can I pre-order an apple that is still growing?

Sometimes. When a variety is close enough that we are confident of the crop, it appears with a pre-order option; until then it simply is not listed. We would rather show nothing than take money for fruit still on the tree in a hailstorm.

Check Ready to Ship for everything available right now.

Why is nothing listed above?

Because this is the page for apples that have not been picked yet. An empty product area here is the page working as intended, not a fault.

What is available today is on Ready to Ship.

Why do harvest dates move around?

Because an apple ripens on the season's terms, not the calendar's. A warm spring can pull bloom forward by two weeks and a cool September can push picking back by the same, and the two do not cancel out.

Growers pick on starch tests, seed color, firmness and taste — not on a date. That is why our windows say “late October” rather than a day.

Which of these apples keeps the longest?

Fuji, EverCrisp, Goldrush, Pink Lady® and Winesap are the great keepers — all of them hold texture for months in a cold crisper drawer.

As a rule the later an apple is picked, the longer it keeps. That is not a coincidence: late varieties evolved to hang through cold nights, and the same qualities that let them do that let them sit in storage.

Which are best for pie and baking?

From this group: Northern Spy, Stayman, Rome, Mutsu, Goldrush and Stark Jumbo are the classic baking apples.

Most good pies blend two: something firm and tart for structure and acidity, something sweet to fill it out. Northern Spy and Mutsu are both strong enough to carry a pie alone.

Which are best for fresh eating?

SnapDragon®, EverCrisp, Fuji, Ambrosia, CandyCrisp and Empire are the standouts for eating out of hand.

If crunch is what you are after, SnapDragon and EverCrisp are the two to try. If you want sweetness without sharpness, Fuji and Ambrosia.

Which of these will I never find in a supermarket?

Top Secret, Senshu, Shizuka, PoundSweet, Stark Jumbo, Golden Russet and Ludacrisp are effectively unavailable through normal retail.

Some are too soft to ship through a distribution chain, some yield too little to interest a packer, and some are simply out of fashion. That is most of the reason a farm like ours exists.

Do you ship to California and Arizona?

Yes, with restrictions that vary by season and variety because of agricultural rules. Our shipping information page covers the current position.

If you are ordering to either state, check before you plan a gift around it.

What is the difference between this page and Ready to Ship?

This page is the future; Ready to Ship is the present. Varieties move from here to there as they are picked, and back off again when the season ends.

If you are shopping today, start with Ready to Ship. If you are waiting for a particular apple, bookmark its page here.

How many apple varieties do you actually grow?

More than most people expect. This page alone lists over thirty varieties still growing for 2026, and that is one group among several — there are the early apples, the heirlooms, and the pears besides.

The full picture is on our apple and pear varieties guide, and the background to where they all came from is in our history of apples.

Orchard Folklore & a Few Bad Jokes

Apples carry more story than any other fruit we grow. Some of it is true, a good deal of it is not, and the parts that are not have usually been repeated for longer.

Johnny Appleseed Was Real — and Not Growing Eating Apples

John Chapman planted seed, not grafts, so his trees came up as random seedlings. Most of that fruit was small, sharp and destined for cider. The barefoot wanderer handing out snacks is a later invention.

Wassailing the Orchard

In parts of England, midwinter still brings people into the orchard to sing to the trees, soak a root in cider and make a great deal of noise to drive off bad spirits. It is one of the oldest surviving agricultural rituals in Europe.

The Apple in Eden Is Never Named

Genesis says “fruit”. The apple got the job largely through a Latin pun — malum means both “apple” and “evil” — and several centuries of painters who found it easy to draw.

An Apple a Day

The rhyme began in 1860s Wales as “eat an apple on going to bed, and you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread”. It scanned badly, so it got tidied up. We make no claims for it either way.

Why did the apple stop halfway up the hill?

It ran out of juice.

What do you call an apple that plays the trumpet?

A tooty fruity.

Why was the apple lonely at the orchard dance?

It couldn’t find its other half — and nobody wanted to be cored with it.

What did the little apple say to the big apple?

“You’re the apple of my pie.”

More from the Orchard

Harvest windows on this page are taken from Honeycrisp.com’s own 2026 Harvest Calendar and are anticipated dates, not guarantees — weather moves them every year. Varieties with no published window are listed as such rather than given an estimated date. Most photographs on this site are stock images intended to give a general idea of a product, not pictures of the specific fruit you will receive.

Want something you can order today? Ready to Ship lists every variety and package leaving the farm right now.