Welcome to Flint Creek Orchard

  Something of a change in weather is supposed to happen this week; could Autumn be arriving?

These are the apple varieties are available for u-pick:   Pixie Crunch, Jonathan, Cortland, Macoun, Fuji, Baldwin, Liberty, Shizuka, Golden Delicious, Idared, Northern Spy, and Ashmead’s Kernel.  Both the Cortland and Liberty are softer now, but still taste good and we like to add them to sauce and pies along with the firmer varieties. The Pixie Crunch and Jonathan are about gone for the season.

We do have honey from hives here on the farm.  Nothing has been added to the honey.

We have Concord grapes for sale.  These grapes have seeds, and we are selling them for people just to eat, as we don’t have the quantity for juice making.

Winter Luxury pie pumpkins are available, as well as delicata and butternut winter squash, and onions. We have ornamental corn and jack-o-lantern pumpkins for decorating also.  

Our hours this week:

Monday, October 6:  5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Tuesday, October 7:  9:00 am - 11:00 am and 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Wednesday, October 8:  9:00 am - 11:00 am

Thursday, October 9: 9:00 am - 11:00 am and 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Friday, October 10:  Closed

Saturday, October 11:  9:00 am - Noon

Sunday, October 12:  Closed

Cash or check only.

Prices

Honey:  $10.00 for a 16 oz. bottle

Apples:  5 pound bag for $5.00 and 10 pound bag for $10.00, 20 pound bag for $20.00, pick your own.    

Onions:  $5.00 for 3 onions 

Winter Luxury pie pumpkin:  $3.00 per pumpkin

Delicata:  $3.00 per squash

Baby Butternut:  $1.00 per squash

Butternut:  $3.00 per squash

Pumpkins:  $5.00 and $7.00 each, depending on size

Cash or check only.

We have quart containers and trays for you to pick into and then take home, and plastic bags for the apples and produce.

We don’t have bathroom facilities.   

Pixie Crunch is exceptionally crispy and is outstanding for fresh eating and salads. Pixie Crunch was developed in 1972 by the joint apple-breeding program of Purdue University, Rutgers University, and the University of Illinois. It is a cross of two numbered apples, but has both Golden Delicious and Rome in its heritage. 

Jonathan is for many what an apple should taste like: tart, crisp, and rich.  Excellent for eating fresh and for pies, desserts, and sauces.

Cortland is a typical McIntosh style apple variety. As with all McIntosh varieties, Cortland is at its best when eaten soon after being picked.  The sweet flavor fades quickly, as does the crispness. Their crisp, finely-grained white flesh is exceptionally juicy with a sharp, sweet-tart flavor. Extremely slow to brown when cut, the Cortland apple is perfect for use in fresh apple preparations.  And people greatly desire Cortland for pies and sauces.

The Liberty apple is sweet like a McIntosh, yet more tart. It is a crisp, juicy apple with fine flesh and a good subacid flavor.  Liberty was developed by the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station and released in 1978. It was a seedling produced in 1955 by the parents 'Macoun' and 'Purdue 54-12' for the sake of acquiring Malus floribunda disease resistances. 

Baldwin is one of the best New England apples, and one of the oldest. It is large and conical, with crimson red over a coppery green skin. Its cream-white flesh is crisp and juicy. It is aromatic with a spicy, sweet-tart flavor, and it holds its shape when cooked. An outstanding apple for fresh eating, it is also good baked, especially in pies. Baldwins store well. Baldwin excels as a fresh eating and cooking apple, and in cider. 

Macoun is a medium sized apple with great sweet taste. Since its beginnings, it has become more widely accepted as an apple that can also be used for baking even though its original creation was intended for snacking and fresh eating. The Macoun Apple was developed in the early 1900s at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, and is named after Canadian horticulturalist W. T. Macoun. The parent apples are McIntosh and Jersey Black. They do not store well after harvest, and are best used within a few weeks of picking. Store Macoun apples in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.  For this 2025 season, pick the larger apples that have some red color. And like anything else here, try before you buy.  

Fuji is crisp and juicy, with dull white flesh which snaps cleanly. The flavor is predominantly sweet and very refreshing (especially if chilled).

The Fuji apple is a hybrid created in Japan in the 1930's with two American apple varieties, Red Delicious and old Virginia Ralls Genet. 

Shizuka apple is large in size with a flavor that tends toward sweetness rather than acidity.  Shizuka was created from a cross of the Golden Delicious apple with the Indo variety and are best for eating fresh and applesauce.  

Golden Delicious apples are firm, crisp, and white-fleshed. These apples have a balanced sweet-tart aromatic flavor, It is a parent apple to many well known varieties, including the Gala, Ambrosia, Mutsu, Pink Lady, and Jonagold. While the exact parentage of the Golden Delicious apple is unknown, it is believed by many to be a relative of the Grimes Golden and the Golden Reinette. It is not, however, related to the Red Delicious apple. 

Idared  is desired for its excellent cooking and baking qualities. Idareds are particularly good for baked apples, since they hold their shape when cooked. Idared apples are named after the state they were first developed—Idaho—and their rich, red color. This variety of Malus domestica is a cross between the Jonathan and Wagener, two antique apples from New York first bred in the eighteenth century. Idared apples are a wonderful storage variety; under proper cool, dry conditions, they can keep for several months.

Northern Spy was developed by a farmer in the early 1800s in Rochester, New York. The apples are large and round. The color of the skin is red and green streaked. The flesh is creamy white, crisp, and sweet.  You can enjoy them fresh, turn them into juice, or even dry them. The texture is perfect for pie; it holds up to baking and produces a pie filling that is soft, but not too soft.

Ashmead’s Kernel is an old nondescript green russeted apple, originating in the 1700s. It is a versatile apple, not just for eating fresh, but can also be used for salads and cooking, and it is a highly-valued apple for juicing.  It keeps well, so you can put a few in the crisper of your fridge and enjoy them for fresh eating several months after harvest time.

Here it is, the beginning of October.  It is warm, even unseasonably so, but we know what lies ahead.  Walking through rows of apple trees, sampling, and picking a few for home is nice activity.  The apple trees were at Green Tip stage on March 30, and most were blooming by April 24.  They’ve endured high winds, torrential rain, hail, and high temperatures, and now they are on the home stretch.  Soon they will shed their leaves and enter dormancy.  But not yet.  There is at least a couple of weeks left for picking apples.  It is a wonderful time of year.