Honeycrisp
Minnesota, 1991
Explosively juicy with oversized cells that shatter when you bite. Honeyed sweetness balanced by a bright finish.
Sweet
Tart
Fresh eatingSalads
Est. 1911 · Cold-hillside orchard
Picked when the frost says so.
Hollowmere grows eight apple varieties on north-facing slopes where cool nights build sugar slowly and skins turn deep and glossy. We pick each block by taste, not by calendar, and sell everything within a day's drive of the tree.
Honeycrisp, block 4, first light of the picking season.
"An apple is the only fruit that tells you the whole story of a year in a single bite: how cold the spring was, how long the summer held, how patient the picker was." Margit Hollow, third-generation grower
The varieties
Eight apples, each with its own temperament.
Every variety we grow was chosen for how it tastes off the tree, not how it ships. Sweetness and tartness below are scored from our own tasting notes.
Granny Smith
Australia, 1868
Firm, grass-green, and unapologetically sour. Holds its shape under heat, which is why bakers reach for it first.
Sweet
Tart
BakingPiesCider blend
Fuji
Japan, 1939
A Red Delicious and Ralls Janet cross with dense, sugary flesh. One of the sweetest apples grown and a superb keeper.
Sweet
Tart
Fresh eatingLunchboxes
Gala
New Zealand, 1934
Mild, floral, and crisp-tender, with a thin skin and a vanilla note. The first apple of our season and the one children ask for.
Sweet
Tart
Fresh eatingApplesauce
Pink Lady
Australia, 1973
Known to growers as Cripps Pink. Fizzy, effervescent sweet-tart balance and slow-browning flesh that keeps sliced fruit looking fresh.
Sweet
Tart
Fresh eatingSaladsTarts
Cosmic Crisp
Washington, 2019
A Honeycrisp and Enterprise cross bred for crunch and storage. Dark, dusky skin with a burst of juice and months of shelf life.
Sweet
Tart
Fresh eatingBaking
Golden Delicious
West Virginia, 1914
Thin-skinned and mellow, with a honeyed, almost pear-like flavor. Softens in the pan into the silkiest applesauce we make.
Sweet
Tart
ApplesauceBakingFresh eating
Braeburn
New Zealand, 1952
Dense and aromatic, with spice, pear, and cinnamon in the finish. Our cider makers' favorite for body and depth.
Sweet
Tart
CiderBakingFresh eating
Harvest calendar
The season, block by block.
Ripening runs from the last hot week of August into the first hard frosts of November. Windows shift a week or two with the weather; call the stand before a long drive.
Variety
August
September
October
November
Gala
Honeycrisp
Golden Delicious
Cosmic Crisp
Fuji
Braeburn
Granny Smith
Pink Lady
Late varieties like Pink Lady and Granny Smith need the long autumn to finish. A light frost on the tree actually sweetens them, converting starch to sugar in the final days.
From tree to table
Three steps, no shortcuts.
Most apples in a grocery aisle were picked months ago and held in controlled-atmosphere storage. Ours follow a shorter road.
Tasted, then picked
Before any block is harvested, we cut fruit and test with iodine for starch conversion and a refractometer for sugar. Only when the numbers and the flavor agree do the ladders go up. Every apple is twisted off by hand with its stem intact.
Cooled the same day
Apples keep ripening after harvest, and warmth speeds it up. Bins go from the row into our cold room within hours, dropping to 34°F, which slows the fruit's respiration and locks in crunch without any coating or gas treatment.
Sold within reach
We sell at the farm stand, at two Saturday markets, and to a dozen restaurants and a cidery, all within sixty miles. Nothing leaves in a shipping container. What you buy on a Saturday was on the tree that week.
What's inside
One medium apple, with the skin on.
Roughly 182 grams, about the size of a tennis ball. Most of the fiber and polyphenols live in and just beneath the skin, so leave it on.
95kcal
Calories
About 86% water by weight
4.4g
Dietary fiber
Mostly pectin, a soluble fiber
8.4mg
Vitamin C
About 9% of a daily value
195mg
Potassium
With 25 g of carbohydrate
Figures from the USDA FoodData Central entry for raw apples with skin, scaled to a 182 g fruit. Values vary by variety and ripeness.