Good-bye Red Delicious; Hello, Honeycrisp and Gala: What apples are Lancaster orchards growing? (2024)

As America blossomed as a nation, so did the orchards filled with Smokehouse apples, York Imperials and Newton Pippins. These apples might have been on the tart side, but they stored well over the winter, could be baked or pressed into cider and even fed to livestock.

Over the years, apples were bred to be redder and sweeter, with thick skin that was resistant to bruising. And the Red Delicious, the reddest and thickest of them all, rose to the top, but its reign as America’s most popular apple is about to end.

By the end of the year, the Gala variety will be the most-grown apple in the country, says the U.S. Apple Association, a trade group.

Lancaster County’s orchards still harvest some Red Delicious apples but they’ve long since moved on to Galas, Honeycrisps and Fujis. A LancasterOnline reader poll shows many people have moved on as well, to apples that are crisp, juicy and sweet.

The most popular variety here, according to the poll, is Sweet Cheeks, a cross between Honeycrisp and Pink Lady developed by Lancaster’s own Hess Brothers Fruit Co. Sweet Cheeks is “perfect sweetness with just enough tartness and is very crisp to bite into, or bake with,” says reader Roberta Phillips.

Coming in a close second is Honeycrisp, “the perfect combination of sweet and tart plus it has the best crunch of any apple,” says reader Greg Dietz.

The Granny Smith apple finished a distant third, loved for its tartness and crunch.

Vintage varieties

When orchards like Kauffman’s Fruit Farm and Market in Bird-in-Hand and Masonic Village’s orchard in Elizabethtown started growing apples a century ago, they grew Stayman Winesap, Gravenstein, Smokehouse and Transparent — tart varieties good for baking and pressing into cider. Later, they added snacking apples like Golden Delicious and Red Delicious, with updated strains to make apples look better and transport easily.

A shift started in the 1980s and 1990s, as Gala and Fuji apples gained popularity. When Shank Fruit Farm became Cherry Hill Orchards Outlet in 1970, it took a few years to plant Fuji apples, which have become the orchard’s most popular variety.

Fuji and Gala apples didn’t have solid colors like Granny Smith or Red Delicious, but they gained ground because of their taste.

“(They’re) sweet,” says Cherry Hill co-manager Phyllis Shenk. “America has a sweet tooth.”

More than looks

That opened the door for apple breeders to grow more varieties.

“Some of the varieties aren’t as aesthetically pleasing but have much better flavors,” says Tad Kuntz, farm market/orchard manager at Masonic Village Farm Market. “The door’s wide open now. People are going more and more for taste.”

Yet customers’ tastes vary widely. Some people might want bright red apples to cook or can. Often, younger customers who eat apples for snacks want maximum flavor.

Masonic Village used to harvest 2,000 bushels of Smokehouse apples a year, but the orchard now has seven Smokehouse trees and 63 other varieties of apples.

Thinking ahead

Gala apples have a sweet flavor, a good crunch and has been the top apple at Kauffman’s Fruit Farm for a few years. Yet Clair Kauffman, orchard manager, can see other apples soon rising to the top.

Take the Honeycrisp, which has a more complex flavor than a Gala, he says. Gold Rush has a nice sweet-tart balance, and his children call Pink Lady the Smartie apple, after the candy.

Keeping up with these changes is a challenge, as apple trees usually stay in production for about 20 years.

“Consumers change their mind quicker than that,” Kauffman says.

When less-popular varieties are ready to go, they’re often replaced with Gala, Fuji or Honeycrisp.

Kauffman’s has grafted new onto old. The orchard took a variety that’s seen a downturn, the Smokehouse, and grafted the popular Honeycrisp on top of about a third of its crop.

Once planted, apple trees will take up to six years to produce a full harvest. So, it’s up to growers to weigh what their customers want, what the market has and what apples will grow well in Lancaster County. Sometimes, an apple tastes great, but the name keeps people away from it, like the Mutsu apple, Kuntz says.

End of Red Delicious?

So, will the Red Delicious disappear from Lancaster County’s orchards?

Not any time soon. A few readers say Red Delicious apples are their favorites because they makes great apple dumplings or have a good taste and crunch.

Still, the end of Red Delicious might be somewhere in the future.

“I used to say, in my lifetime we’ll always grow Red Delicious,” Kuntz says. “The consumer tastes are changing very rapidly over the last 10 years. I could potentially see the day when we grow very few.”

The variety’s high moisture content that might seem mealy to some means these apples produce a good amount of apple cider. So Red Delicious might have a place as a cider apple.

“The next generation coming along here, their acceptance of Red Delicious is almost zero,” Kuntz says. “There’s a potential in 20-25 years; Red Delicious has not only fallen off the top but fallen all the way down the list.”