Open Spaces Apple CSA

Yellow flesh, deep red skin, over a yellow cream base. Super early disease-resistant variety with crisp mid-season apple quality. So good. Enjoy this while discussing with friends!

Large lenticels (the white spots on the skin), red/green skin. Softer flesh like a McIntosh with a bright juicy tang. Easy to eat out of hand. Falls apart quickly when cooked - great for applesauce!

Bred for superior disease resistance and is a high quality early apple. We find these to be mild, juicy, sweet, and floral. Flesh is white. Great for fresh eating and all-purpose cooking/drying/juicing.

NO CROP IN 2023

Introduced in 1986 from a New Zealand-Japan effort. A cross of Akane and Gala. Sweet and flavorful, for fresh eating, pies, and cider.

So delicate and amazing. Cheerful bright smallish red fruit with a thin skin and crisp white flesh. Bred in Japan and introduced to the US in 1970. A satisfying blend of tart and sweet with a smooth crunch makes these fantastic eating apples. Recommended for drying and also for pies as they hold their shape.

These pop with flavor. Complex sweetness with a slightly starchy flesh (which is where I find the chestnut reference). I think the ones with some russeting (yes, like a russet potato!) are the most flavorful.

no crop in 2023

These are SOUR!. And usually enormous. Bred in Geneva (1974). And often actually burgundy in color! Sometimes the pigment from the skins streaks into the flesh. Eat them fresh or use in juice, sweet cider and for drying. Pair with thin slices of extra sharp cheddar cheese for an umami-tart-sweet stunner blend of a snack -- Hope, one of our members, recommended this! So darn good! Also few in number, with only one seriously producing tree.

From Cummins Nursery…

”A sweet, aromatic offspring of Worcester Pearmain, early ripening. Also known as Early Worcester, Tydeman's Red. This mid-sized apple is sweet and juicy, and the aromatics are often described as strawberry. The skin is a deep red and the flesh is crisp and white with a tinge of green. Tydeman's Early Worcester ripens in August here in Ithaca, and while it might not be the most obvious candidate for cider, our friends at Eve's Cidery have created one of our favorite single varietals out of this fruit. "

Known to my friends with children variably as “The Nanny Apple- entertains a baby for an hour” and “Feed 9 children with one apple”, I did steal some official wording from Trees of Antiquity’s website. So more officially, Wolf River apple tree originated in Wolf River, WI in 1875. The Wolf River apples are enormous fruits, often 1 lb. or more, famous for one pie from one fruit. Wolf River apples have pale yellow skin almost covered with pale dull red. Soft, tender, creamy white flesh. Mostly used for baking and pies, but in the right climate on sandy soil it becomes a good dessert apple. I’ll say… it feeds 9 kids at a table. Take a few to try, and understand these are not graded, are in utility grade shape and are not counted in your share, so feel no pressure either way!

That yearned after sweet treat! Streaky pink over light green and yellow skin, this terrific eating apple gives a crunch like no other. Large crystalline-like cells shatter into juice. So juicy you may have to slurp. Eat fresh or store the prettiest, greenest looking ones (in a plastic bag!) in your fridge for a treat in December. These are fairly limited in 2023- we experienced a lot of damage and loss on this variety in the May freeze. The remainder still have some freeze damage, but we are excited to share what we can!

Its flavor is sweet and complex. Hints of anise emerge, as well as a nuttiness, spiciness, and/or essences of vanilla and cherry. The thickness of the skin so matches the consistency of the flesh that once bitten, there is little distinction. The crunch yields plenty of juice, yet gives enough substance to have a good short chew. It's a softer crystalline cell structure than Honeycrisp. Easy to eat out of hand and also highly rated for cooking. Butter-colored flesh. Keeps well in cold storage.

no crop in 2023

*some bulk orders available.

This hearty mainstay of our orchard is bright, tangy, and useful for everything: fresh eating, sauces, baking, cider, you go for it. The delicate thin skin is a bright maroon with a purple/blue bloom over a yellow base. Slightly chewy flesh gives way to tart juice with an astringent/starchy finish that leaves the eater ready for the next bite. Apparently Liberties can do that for hard cider as well, and are one of the "dessert apples" (eating apples) that can contribute to a fermented blend. Popular for its resistance to scab and other diseases, its regularly abundant crops, AND its ability to do all of that and taste darn good.

In 1941, frost destroyed the apple crop at the Geneva (NY) Experiment Station. That fall, apple breeder Roger Way traveled to the Hudson Valley, gathered apples from a McIntosh and Red Delicious orchard, and planted the seeds out. He waited for the trees to bear, tasted everything, and selected this one. Empire apples have a similar feel to a Mac, but they store much better and have a bit more kick in the acidity department. Most people think they are better than either of their parents. Excellent for fresh eating, salads, sauce, baking, pies, and freezing. White flesh, plump, round, medium size fruit.

*some bulk orders available

The official state apple of Ohio. Large and slightly squat in shape, Melrose apples are a dusky red over a yellow-green background. Firm and pleasingly coarse in texture, this apple's luscious white flesh is juicy with a sweet and mildly tart flavor that becomes more floral and aromatic with age. Great for fresh eating and also for cooking. Actually, this variety makes fantastic sauce all on its own! Melrose is a great keeper.

A celebration of thick skin! Bred for disease resistance, these apples are impenetrable little maroon tanks, making them more self-sufficient in the orchard AND really excellent for storage. Tart with a hint of spiced sweetness, these flavors gradually release as you chew. If you're not a big fan of contemplative chewing, try slicing them up instead or throw them into whatever baked apple deliciousness you're into lately. (If they are too tart for you now, bag 'em up in your fridge and taste them again in a month. You can do this with any apple too tart for your liking right now.)

Holy school apple! These plump, deep red, bespeckled apples hearken back to when the the genre of eating apples encompassed an ENTIRELY different mouth experience than we are used to today. Yes, these are crisp- but not from a cell structure swollen with juice, more so it feels like from the sheer number cells packed so closely together. These apples startling dense. And the flavor is lovely. I recommend slicing them rather than biting into them. Also beloved for baking and sauce making.

This gem was discovered near an Oregon nursery in 1931. Nobody knows who its parents were. It is a russet apple, with a rougher netting of dark skin. It also is a bit pear-like, but if you notice, it's like an upside down pear because the narrower end is away from the stem. Another name for this apple shape is "sheepnose." These apples never bear heavily, placing them in the "non-commercial" class. But fun to eat!

A cross developed in Geneva, NY, between the sugary Golden Delicious and the more acidic Jonathan. The result is a wonderful balanced sweetness - honey and a hint of tartness. I think Jonagold is the best variety from the Geneva breeding program. This beautiful crisp and juicy apple is great for eating, baking, and saucing. AND, Jonagolds make great fried apples. Simply saute in coconut oil and add a little cinnamon. They are also a key ingredient of sweet cider blends. Not a great keeper.

no crop in 2023

Discovered over 100 years ago in a West Virginia orchard. Great for fresh eating, baking and sauce. Also good to blend in sweet cider. We think these freshly-picked Goldens are better than most you can find in a supermarket, see if you agree!

Named in part for the Hudson Valley town, Esopus, where it was first discovered in the 1700's. Rough, blood red skin with gold flecks (lenticels). Slightly oblong, upright, and angular. Flesh is dense, crisp, and supremely flavorful. Said to be Thomas Jefferson's favorite apple, they are good keepers and were exported to England in Colonial times. Excellent eating out of hand, and also for juicing, making hard cider, and baking.

*some bulk orders available

These highly productive, reliable apples have a mild sweet-tart flavor, are extremely juicy, and store really well. Large, flat fruits with dull, rose-pink skins and chewy, mac-like flesh. Excellent for baking and sauce - these apples hold their shape perfectly and make delicious soft and tender pies.

Classic hard cider apple due to its very high sugar content (where the booze comes from) and its aromatics and acidity (where the nuanced flavors come from). Check out its old-fashioned, hard texture. Back before refrigeration, this beauty blanketed the shores of Lake Ontario, prized as it was for winter storage. Rough, chartreuse skin wrapped in gold with granular crisp flesh. Eat fresh or pop into a pie. This is a remarkable apple.

Open Spaces continues the organic practices used by Hemlock Grove Farm. Our farming philosophy focuses on the safest growing methods available, to protect the health of apple eaters and the natural environment alike. We offer our apples to the greater Ithaca area through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, and for sale by the bushel. In our production of organically grown apples (certified by Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York), we use techniques that differ fromconventional methods.

We use no herbicides. Grass and wildflowers grow right up to the tree trunks, and their competition is controlled by mowing. Compared to trees grown in herbicided strips of bare soil, we may have slightly lower yields, but the grass competition results in a more concentrated, flavorful apple.

We practice strict orchard sanitation, which interrupts pest and disease life cycles. Promptly picking up and removing fallen apples stops pests from overwintering in the soil. Mowing fallen leaves into windrows in autumn encourages their quick decomposition, preventing fungal spores from surviving into the next year.

Organic fruit does require spraying, but with safe products. For insect control, we spray Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis, a kind of bacteria that makes a protein toxic only to caterpillars), Grandevo (a new product from a soil microbe similar to Bt), Cyd-X (a virus that affects only caterpillars), and clay sprays. The clay coats the trees and fools the insects. We monitor moth pests in the orchard to time our sprays. For apple diseases, we spray sulfur or potassium bicarbonate (similar to baking soda). These are low-impact fungicides. We are very pleased with the results from bicarbonate.

Most orchardists use sprays of synthetic chemicals to thin the apple crop when it sets too heavily. We thin the crop by hand, which requires significant labor, but also allows us to carefully remove imperfect apples from the trees.  We are experimenting with a baking soda spray to thin the crop.

Our trees are not fertilized with soluble nitrogen. The fertilizers we use, such as compost, limestone, liquid calcium, and liquid seaweed, complement natural nutrient cycling in the orchard, and pose little hazard to groundwater. We do not “push” the trees for rapid growth and highest yields, which also helps to reduce problem diseases and some leaf-feeding pests.

We often conduct on-farm experiments, trialing innovative techniques and new environmentally benign sprays. In recent years we have experimented with neem oil (a natural fungicide) and herbal teas to encourage tree health.

As you can see, we are using an integrated system that takes considerable hand labor and produces slightly lower yields than a conventional orchard. However, our apples and cider are highly flavored, and we are working with growing methods that we feel are safer for the consumer, the grower, the water, the air, and the wild plants and animals--including the many species of beneficial insects.