Varieties & Approximate Harvest Dates
Keep in mind that weather plays a large role in ripening dates and availability each year.
During some harvest seasons, some apples are available before or after the dates shown in this schedule. This apple harvest schedule shows typical dates and is posted for customer convenience, but please don't depend solely on it. For the most up-to-date information on our apple crops, follow us on social media!

Yellow Transparent
Availability: Most of JulyA popular favorite of local applesauce makers who prefer a more tart, full-flavor apple with smooth, light texture and attractive light color.
Best Alternatives:
Earligold or Summer Rambo

Earligold
Availability: Late July - Late AugustA transparent-type variety that makes a light-textured, light-colored and full flavored applesauce. This cultivar originated in Washington state.
Best Alternatives: Yellow Transparent or Summer Rambo

Summer Rambo
Availability: Late July - mid-AugustA grass green-colored Lancaster County favorite for applesauce and apple pies. First grown in France in the mid-1500's.
Best Alternatives: Earligold or Smokehouse

Ginger Gold
Availability: Early August - Early SeptemberOur top-selling applesauce variety, with crunch and flavor. Great for fresh eating too. Almost as sweet and tasty as Golden Delicious, but ripens six weeks earlier. Discovered by a fruit grower in Virginia after a tragic storm in 1969.
Best Alternatives: Earligold or Golden Supreme

Sansa
Availability: Early August - Early SeptemberThe first "real" eating apple of the season. An "offspring" of Gala and also related to Jonathan. Originated in Japan and has tremendous flavor, juice, and crunch.
Best Alternatives: Zestar or Gala

Zestar! (Minnewashta cultivar)
Availability: Late August - Early OctoberAn early season apple with crisp, juicy texture and a zesty flavor with a hint of brown sugar. Outstanding texture, flavor, and storage life. Developed at the University of Minnesota, who also introduced the Honeycrisp.
Best Alternatives: Sansa or Honeycrisp

Gala
Availability: Late August - Most of WinterThe most popular eating apple in the U.S. with a glowing red-orange appearance, sweet & wonderful taste, and an excellent crunch. Originated in New Zealand and includes both Red Delicious and Golden Delicious in its ancestry.
Best Alternatives: Zestar or Sansa

Honeycrisp
Availability: Late August - Early OctoberAn "explosively crisp" apple, with light, crunchy texture and sweet flavor. Introduced in 1991 at the University of Minnesota. Honeycrisp is also a fine baking apple.
Best Alternatives: Zestar or Crimson Crisp

Smokehouse
Availability: Most of SeptemberOriginated as a chance seedling behind the smokehouse of a Bird-in-Hand farm in the 1800's, making it a Lancaster County specialty. Green skin color and tart flavor compares to Granny Smith. Ideal for all cooking, baking, sauce, and salad purposes.
Best Alternatives: Summer Rambo or Grimes Golden

McIntosh
Availability: Mid-September - ThanksgivingA mildly tart, somewhat mellow and aromatic apple that's great for snacking, drying, most cooking purposes, and applesauce. McIntosh has been the premier apple grown in New York and the New England states.
Best Alternatives: Cortland or Empire

Jonathan
Availability: Mid-September - Early-DecemberA tart and spicy all-around apple. This variety has great "stay firm when baked" flesh for pies and dumplings.
Best Alternatives: Jonagold or Idared

Red Delicious
Availability: Mid-September - SpringThe best known apple, primarily used for fresh eating. Discovered on a farm in Iowa in the 1870's. Originally called "Hawkeye" before Stark Brothers Nursery bought the rights to the apple and renamed it.
Best Alternatives: Golden Delicious or Cameo

Grimes Golden
Availability: Mid-September - Early NovemberExcellent for pies and cooked-apple dishes. Also a great-tasting fresh eating apple with a mellow texture. Discovered by Thomas Grimes in West Virginia in 1804 and believed to be a parent of Golden Delicious.
Best Alternatives: Ginger Gold or Golden Delicious

Cortland
Availability: Mid-September - Early DecemberAn excellent all-around apple with mellow texture, "stay-white-longer" flesh, and makes red-colored applesauce. Originated in New York State as a cross between McIntosh and Ben Davis.
Best Alternatives: McIntosh or Empire

Crimson Crisp
Availability: Mid-September - Most of WinterA crunchy, sweet-tart fresh-eating and salad apple that rivals Honeycrisp.
Best Alternatives: Zestar or Honeycrisp

Empire
Availability: Late September - Most of WinterCombines the best traits of both its parents, Red Delicious and McIntosh. Great for snacks, desserts, and salads, as well as the main ingredient in apple pie.
Best Alternatives: Cortland or Red Delicious

Golden Delicious
Availability: Mid-September - SpringKauffman's best selling apple. In 2014, our orchard crew harvested 2423 bushels of Golden Delicious in three weeks' time. Great for all purposes.
Best Alternatives: Golden Supreme or Grimes Golden

Jonagold
Availability: Late September - Most of WinterA large, beautiful apple with mellow texture and great taste. A cross between Jonathan and Golden Delicious. Great when blended with a sweet variety for a great no-sugar-added applesauce.
Best Alternatives: Jonathan or Crispin

Idared
Availability: Late-September - Mid-DecemberDeveloped at the University of Idaho's Agricultural Experiment Station and well-suited for baking, cooking, and drying uses. Used at Kauffman's for making tart apple schnitz.
Best Alternatives: Jonathan or Rome

Crispin
Availability: Early October - SpringA sweet, juicy, firm textured, crispy, white-fleshed variety developed in Japan, where they call it Mutsu. Great for salads and cooked apple dishes, too.
Best Alternatives: Golden Delicious or Cameo

Stayman
Availability: Mid-October - MarchDiscovered around the close of the Civil War by J. Stayman, this variety is one of the most popular cultivars grown at Kauffman's. Rich, snappy, and distinctive taste and texture.
Best Alternatives: Rome or Goldrush

Rome Beauty
Availability: Early October - SpringA better keeping variety that is firm and attractively colored. It has a mild flavor and is good for all baking and cooking purposes. Used at Kauffman's for peeling and coring apples for bakeries and restaurants and in Arianna’s Apple Dumplings.
Best Alternatives: Stayman or Idared

Fuji
Availability: Mid-September - SpringUnusually sweet and extra crunchy. Developed in Japan and claims Red Delicious as a parent. A classic apple for fresh eating and salads and is an outstanding keeper.
Best Alternatives: Cameo or Braeburn

Cameo
Availability: Early October - Most of WinterPleasingly sweet flavor, big crunch, and good keeping qualities. The thin skin enhances its fresh-eating pleasure. Believed to be related to both Red Delicious and Golden Delicious, Cameo was discovered in Washington State in 1987.
Best Alternatives: Fuji or Braeburn

Granny Smith
Availability: Late October - JanuaryThe famous green baking apple discovered by Margaret Smith in Australia before 1900. Hard, juicy, and tart. Perhaps the most widely known cooking apple.
Best Alternatives: Stayman or Pink Lady

Goldrush
Availability: Thanksgiving - SpringGreat for fresh-eating and in baked apple dishes. A disease-resistant apple developed through the combined efforts of Purdue University, Rutgers University and the University of Illinois. Firm texture and spicy taste.
Best Alternatives: Granny Smith or Pink Lady

Pink Lady
Availability: Early November - SpringDeveloped in Australia and includes Golden Delicious in its ancestry. Sweet-tart, outstanding flavor and very crisp texture. The pink skin and white flesh add to the attractiveness of this variety.
Best Alternatives: Braeburn or Goldrush