Hocking Hills Orchard

08/16/2026

An important update from Hocking Hills Orchard!

This spring our Hocking Hills Orchard experienced a 95% crop loss according to our local USDA agent due to 4 hard freezes when the trees were in full bloom. Unfortunately that means we will not be able to offer U-Pic this year or if we do maybe just one or two times.

We know visiting our Hocking Hills Orchard is a tradition many families and people look forward to and we are very disappointed that we won't be able to share that experience with you this season.

Thank you for supporting our orchard over the past years and your kind words during this difficult time. We'll continue to share updates here and look forward to welcoming everyone back for a stronger harvest next season.

The Hocking Hills Orchard at Four Seasons Cabins family.

07/04/2026

Happy July 4th! 250 years for the greatest county on the Earth.

A few apple varieties related to some of our nation’s Founding Fathers and the oldest known variety from The United States and some red, white and blue apples.

Esopus Spitzenberg – New York, mid 1700's. Medium to large sized fruit ripens mid season. Mottled orange red skin with some russetting. Delicious sweet tart flavor with crisp flesh. Always a top rated variety in our apple tastings. A favorite of Thomas Jefferson.

Hewe’s Crab – Virginia, early 1700's. Dull red mixed with faint streaks of greenish yellow, juice acid and astringent, called the most celebrated cider apple ever grown in the US, making a dry cider unsurpassed in flavor and keeping ability. the ‘must’ runs from the press very fine and clear. George Washington was a great admirer, preferring crab cider to any other.

Newtown Pippin – New York, early 1700's. Large fruit is at first dull green, but changing as it ripens to a fine olive green, or greenish yellow, with a reddish blush. Flesh is yellowish white tinged with green, firm, crisp, very juicy, with a rich and highly aromatic flavor. A favorite of George Washington.

Rhode Island Greening – Rhode Island - 1650. Late, ripening large fruit is smooth and unctuous to the touch, dark green at first, becoming pale as it ripens, sometimes with a faint blush. Yellowish flesh is tender, crisp, juicy with a rich, brisk, and aromatic flavor. And unctuous, really? A fancy word for saying oily or greasy skin.

And now a red, white and sort of blue selection of apples.

Clifford – Virginia. Found growing on the home site of Patrick Henry. Medium size fruit. Solid red skin covered with light russeting. Solid red flesh, juicy, very tart flavor. Ripens mid September.

White Joaneting – England, 1500's. Very early ripening, by the end of June. Small to medium sized sweet apples, crisp with a fresh flavor.

Blue Pearmain – Massachusetts, pre 1800. A unique bluish bloom over dark purplish skin. Crisp, tender, fine-grained yellowish flesh with rich and mildly tart flavor. Orchardists describe the Blue Pearmain as "heavy in hand" (dense) referring to the noticeably higher specific gravity. A longtime favorite cider variety, one of my favorites.

Derek and Lisa Mills
Hocking Hills Orchard at Four Seasons Cabins in the beautiful Hocking Hills of SE Ohio. Home to over 2,000 varieties of apples and pears and grapes and other unusual and heirloom fruit.

Looking for a trip to the Hocking Hills? Our Four Seasons Cabins are the perfect destination, two cabins on 55 acres surrounded by wood and the orchard with hiking trails a stocked pond. https://www.fourseasonscabinrental.com/

Stay at a locally owned and operated cabin business, it matters!

05/26/2026

05/24/2026

1,355,705 is how many Americans have given their lives since the Revolutionary War to preserve our freedom.

Thanks to all who served including my dad Lowell Mills, my uncle Harold Sharp, my uncle Glenn Mills, my uncle Eddie Strunk (KIA Vietnam) and to all my buddies from my time in the US Army.

04/17/2026

Spring always just flies by and this year is no different as the apple blossoms are already off their peak! But the red fleshed apples just have such beautify blooms that it is worth sharing. And just like every year the red fleshed apple varieties get a jump on blooming. Here is the first post of a few really nice tasting red fleshed apple varieties grown at our Hocking Hills Orchard that have started blooming. The bloom followed by what the apple will look like when ripe.

Bakran – Iran. Bakran is a very old Iranian red-fleshed variety native to Bakran Village. Not only are the apples red fleshed, but the seeds, young leaves and wood of the trees are also red. In its homeland, this variety is used for drying, cooking, juicing and eating fresh. Ripens mid September here.

Clifford – Virginia. Found growing on the home site of Patrick Henry. Medium size to large fruit. Solid red skin covered with light russeting and rough skin. Solid red flesh, juicy, very tart flavor. Ripens mid September. One of the varieties I always take to the local schools for apple talks.

Estonian Wine Apple – Estonia, - 1950. The name in Estonian is Veiniõun. In Estonian veini means wine and õun means apple, hence Estonian Wine Apple. Fruit medium to large, nearly full red, tart flavor. Large red flowers that produce great tasting apples.

Pekacervenca – Red fleshed variety developed in the Czech Republic.

After this year’s grafting we are now at just over 2,000 apple varieties, 200+ pear varieties and 125 grape varieties. Our UPic and farm market days typically run the last weekend in July or the first weekend in August through the first or second weekend in October depending on harvest and will be posted on Facebook.

For a great group to help keep heirloom and unusual varieties growing join NAFEX.

And this Sunday is my grafting class hosted by Raccoon Creek Watershed group down at Ohio University from 1300 until 1500.

Stay at locally owned businesses when visiting somewhere like the Hocking Hills, it matters!

Derek A Mills
Hocking Hills Orchard at the Four Seasons Cabins in the beautiful Hocking Hills of SE Ohio.
www.hockinghillsorchard.com
www.fourseasonscabinrental.com
www.travelingchapel.com