Lyndale Stand

Ida red, Melrose, Mutsu, Gala, Empire... It's the end of the season, but the late yielding trees still make a last stop at the Lyndale farm stand worthwhile. Right beside the Boston Turnpike it's an easy stop on a nice detour. You can find more Connecticut farm stands here.

Shirey Brothers Orchard

Owned jointly by the three Shirey brothers, Eugene, Andrew,and Stephen Shirey, this farm resides in Berks county Pennsylvania. Located at 1259 Old Airport rd. in Douglassville, you can see the apple trees from the road. I found their apples at a chain grocery store, prominently displayed but not labeled by type which is a minus.

Unionville cart

That's the setting sun, not the rising sun on those apples. At a farmers cart in Unionville, a hired hand was selling apples, pears, Lima beans and some greens. The apples were not labeled at all but Golden Delicious, Gala, Granny Smith, Macintosh, and others were easily identified.

Monolith Apples

Monolith apples are actually a recent Pennsylvania cultivar developed by North Star Orchards. It's firm, very tart but still sweet and has a bit of distinguishing russeting around the stem. It's a red and green blush apple that ripens in late August.They haven't revealed the lineage but they don't have to. they just have to keep growing them. It's the best new apple I've tasted in years.

Ringing Hills Cider

It's not exactly  a purist cider. It's pasteurized and contains a pinch of potassium sorbate as a preservative. But it's from an organic farm and it's good; leaning toward the sweet and mild end of the spectrum. Personally I prefer more tartness but this is also sold at grocery stores in the suburbs of Philadelphia, so in some ways it needs to serve the palate of the average consumer.  More here.

Quarryville Orchards

There's not much I can add to this already informative blog post. Aaron Esh is the main main at Quarryville Orchards.  He sells his fruit at many weekly street markets around Philadelphia. His cider is divine. But drink quickly, it's unpasteurized and starts "sparkling" as soon as you break the seal. Of course for some fans, that's when the fun gets started.

For the record, there is no federal law that requires the pasteurization of cider. However some states do, thankfully not Pennsylvania. The possibility of E coli contamination is limited to wind-fall apples in pastures that trees share with cattle. No reputable orchard would do this.

Florina Apples

A very modern apple originating in France in the 1950s. It's popular with growers not just because of it's sweetness, but also because it is firm and ships well but is also resistant to diseases such as Fireblight, scab, and mildew. That's a win-win. More here.

Florina are a type 4 apple which means it is self-sterile. It cannot pollinate itself which is uncommon in apples. It is a known mix of Malus floribunda and Malus zumi. 

Royalty Apples

I was unfamiliar with the Royalty apple, they're about the size of a grapefruit but still firm and sweet.  At that size they're more of a meal than a snack, but apples share well if you have a knife. Apparently it's novelty as a cultivar is for it's redness and not it's size

‘Royalty’ is one of the few apple cultivars producing 100% red-pigmented progeny. Most red-pigmented apples produce some non-red progeny, and more than would be likely in a random set. Apparently this is due to a single dominant red pigment gene. More here.


I am much more familiar with the Royalty crab apple, which this is clearly not. To which the pigmentation data applies is uncertain.

Grafting Apple Trees

Seed Savers is offering a workshop later this month. and again in April. You can learn techniques to preserve heirloom apples from Seed Savers orchard advisor Dan Bussey and Lindsay Lee. Workshop participants will go home with at least 3 grafted trees from our Historic Orchard. More information here.