Meleg's Apple Varieties
We grow quality apples for you to enjoy!
Whether you like your apple sweet or tart, Meleg's Orchard has the perfect pick for you! We have a wide variety of apples to choose from in store and for u-pick. All of our apples are great for eating fresh, cooking or baking. Any way you pick them, they’re simply delicious.
We’ve listed all of our apples alphabetically with helpful information including origins, unique flavours, and textures, uses and seasonal availability for your reference.
Cortland
A cross between a Ben Dvis and a McIntosh apple.
Picking Month: Mid September
The fruit is sweet and tart, juicy with nice aroma. It has large globular shape with red-orange stripes. Resists browning.
Common uses: Fresh eating, salads, fruit plates. Good for pies and sauce.
Cox's Orange Pippin
The Cox’s Orange Pippin apple was discovered as a chance seedling in 19th century England. It was first bred by Richard Cox in Colnbrook, Middlesex, and it thrived in the cooler weather characteristic of Great Britain.
Picking Month: Late September
Cox's Orange Pippin apples are yellow with red blush and occasional brownish-red striping. The red over the yellow gives the apple an orange hue. Beneath a thin skin, the firm flesh is very juicy with an intensely aromatic flavor reminiscent of mango with a hint of spice. The flavor of this English apple improves as it ripens off the tree.
Common uses: Fresh eating, baking, pies, sauces
Crispin or Mutsu
This apple originated in Japan and is a cross between Golden Delicious and Indo varieties .
Picking Month: October
The fruit has distinctive, delicate, spicy flavour, faintly anise-like. An excellent all purpose apple. Moderately sweet flavour with juicy, firm and creamy white flesh. Skin colour is a yellowish-green with an orange blush. Stores well.
Common uses: Fresh eating, cooking, baking, pies, salads, sauces.
Fuji
A cross between the Red Delicious and old Virginia Ralls Genet. Developed in Japan and named after Mount Fuji.
Picking Month: October
Medium to large apple. Firm and greenish pink with white flesh. Juicy. One of the sweetest apples. One of the best keeping varieties.
Common uses: Fresh eating, baking, salads, sauces, freezing.
Gala
Cross between a Kidd's Orange and Golden Delicious.
Picking Month: Early September
Crispy, juicy and sweet with excellent texture and flavour. It is a crisp, firm fruit with pronounced red stripes over a yellow-orange under colour.
Common uses: Fresh eating, baking, salads, sauces
Gingergold
Ginger Gold is famous as the apple that Hurricane Camille brought forth. Camille brought devastating floods to Nelson County, Virginia in 1969, and the orchards of Clyde and Frances "Ginger" Harvey were badly washed out. In recovering the few surviving trees around the edge of one Winesap orchard, another tree was found which Clyde Harvey recognized as being different.
Picking Month: End of August
The fruit is large, conical and starts out a very pale green, though if left on the tree will ripen to a soft yellow with a slightly waxy appearance. The primary use is for eating out of hand, though it can be used for most other purposes. The flesh, of a cream color, resists browning more than most varieties. The flavor is mild but with a tart finish.
Common uses: Fresh eating, cooking, baking, pies, salads, sauces
Golden Delicious
Discovered as a chance seedling in Clay County, West Virginia in. 1914 and was named Mullin's Yellow Seedling. The parentage of Golden Delicious is thought to be Golden Reinette and Grimes Golden.
Picking Month: Early October
Excellent all-purpose apple with a rich, unique flavour. One of the finest salad and dessert apples grown. Pale yellow flesh is medium, firm, juicy, and resists browning. Pulp is firm and crisp. Cooks firm. It's a popular inclusion in fresh apple cider.
Common uses: Fresh eating, cooking, baking, pies, salads, sauces
Golden Supreme
The Golden Supreme was a random seedling found in Idaho in 1960. It has a resemblance to a Golden Delicious, but it is different.
Picking Month: Mid September
The flesh is firm, moderately crisp, and juicy to very juicy. The flesh is white to light-cream coloured; it browns slowly when exposed to air. The flavour is sweet to mildly sweet and pleasant with little or no detectable acid (unlike Golden Delicious.
Common uses: Fresh eating, baking, cooking, salads, sauces
Honeycrisp
Believed to be a cross between a Macoun and a Honeygold
Picking Month: Early September
Extraordinarily crisp and juicy apple with a honeyed mild flavour. The coarse flesh is a distinctive mottled red over a yellow background.
Common uses: Fresh eating, cooking, baking, salads, sauces
Jonagold
A New York native, blend of Jonathan and Golden Delicious apples.
Picking Month: October
This apple has a unique honey-tart flavour, and crispy, juicy, nearly yellow flesh. Often large in size, Jonagold are firm apples with a yellow-green base skin colour and a red-orange blush.
Common uses: Fresh eating, cooking, baking, pies, salads, sauces.
McIntosh
Discovered as a chance seedling by John McIntosh in 1811.
Picking Month: September
Deep red finish, sometimes with a green blush. Has a distinctive aroma, and delicious sweet and "tangy" flavour. Pulp is firm and crisp. Cooks soft and smooth.
Common uses: Fresh eating, cooking, baking, salads, sauces
Paula Red
'Paulared' is an apple cultivar that arose as a seedling next to an orchard of 'McIntosh' trees. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Red)
Picking Month: Late August
'Paulared' apples are bright red with some yellow and tan spots; the skin often has a dusty sheen. They have a sprightly taste, not too sweet and not too tart, vinous and slightly reminiscent of strawberries. It has a firm white flesh that becomes soft and mealy extremely quickly as its season declines.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Red)
Common uses: Fresh eating, sauces
Pink Lady
Originally named Cripp's Pink. Developed and bred by the agriculture department of Western Australia in 1973, Pink Lady apples are a cross between Golden Delicious and Lady Williams.
Picking Month: Late October
Pink lady is generally tart apple. The fine-grained flesh of this apple is crisp and crunchy and, because it does not brown easily after being cut, Pink Lady is a desirable addition to fresh vegetable and fruit salads. When eaten out-of-hand, the first bite tastes pleasantly tart and is followed by a delicious sweetness.
Common uses: Fresh eating, baking, pies, salads, sauces
Red Delicious
A farmer named Jesse Hiatt discovered the chance seedling on his farm near Peru, Iowa, and twice tried to chop it out. When it sprouted a third time, he gave it a reprieve and let it grow. Later he discovered qualities in it he liked. He displayed it as the Hawkeye variety at an 1893 fruit show in Louisiana, Missouri, sponsored by Stark Brothers.
Picking Month: October
Officially classed as a "sweet" apple, but with a certain pleasing tartness. Highly flavoured for fresh eating. A glossy red apple with a distinctive "typey" five-pointed elongated shape. Pulp is crisp and juicy with sweet yellow flesh. Stores very well.
Common uses: Fresh eating, salads
Russet
Russet is a classic English apple from the Victorian era. A European favorite. One of the oldest Ontario varieties.
Picking Month: Late October
Russet apples often exhibit a scent and flavour reminiscent of nuts, and are often very sweet. This is an apple that dares to be different! An apple with golden yellow skin and a dry flesh. In spite of its unique appearance, Russet has many of the characteristics which mark out a good apple: a harmony of flavour and texture, and a good balance between sweetness and sharpness.
Common uses: Fresh eating, baking, pies, salads
Sunrise