Hocking Hills Orchard

10/15/2026

A lot of emails asking me about my favorite red fleshed apple and out of our 2,000 varieties of apples about 270 are red or orange or pink fleshed.

Please note this is a post about obtaining scions from me to graft a tree, not a post saying these are apples for sale right now. Our UPic and orchard for apples will open up again next July.

Red skin and red or pink flesh, green skin and red or pink flesh, yellow skin and red or pink flesh. Green skin and orange flesh, yellow skin and orange flesh, orange skin and pink flesh. There are quite a few combinations and the red pigmentation of the flesh comes mainly from a class of flavonoids called anthocyanins.

No matter the red fleshed variety they all have a common progenitor, Niedzweckyana, from Kazakhstan. And I have been sent every spelling of Niedzweckyana there is so I know to someone this is not correct but to me it is. Niedzweckyana was taken to England in the 1800’s and one of the earliest developed red fleshed varieties, Surprise, came about. Surprise was then brought to the United States where people like Albert Etter used it to develop Pink Pearl, Pink Pearmain among others. Dr Nels Hansen used Niedzweckyana in his breeding programs to expand the growing range of apples in the United States and developed Almata and Winekist and others.

And here are a few of my favorite red fleshed apple varieties that we have here at our Hocking Hills Orchard at the Four Seasons Cabins.

Niedzweckyana – Kazakhstan. Red flesh apple that is used in a lot of breeding programs due to the red flesh and cold hardiness. We use it when making c***r from red fleshed varieties. Ripens late August. Most of the time people will describe this variety as brutal or extremely tart but there is a two or three day window when the sugar hits it maximum and they are not bad.

Surprise – England, early 1800's. Pink-fleshed apple that is the ancestor of many of the present-day pink/red-fleshed apples bred by American growers. A medium sized round apple with a dull pale green ripening to light yellow skin with and very nice tasting sweet tart ping flesh. Descendant of Niedzweckyana.

Discovery - England, 1949. Early August ripening dessert variety. Medium sized fruit with bright red skin and bright red flesh. Worcester Pearmain x Beauty of Bath cross. Great tasting sweet tart flavor, flesh stays crisp longer than most early apples. I have to net the trees of this variety to keep the birds away, it is one of their favorites too.

Pekacervenca - Czech Republic. Nice sweet tart flavor and pretty productive.

Pekka – Finland, 1999. Lobo x Huvitus. Medium size fruit has dark purple, almost black, skin. Red flesh is sweet.

Red Merylinn - Switzerland, Newer red fleshed introduction. Intense red flesh color and very juicy.

Ruby Sipper – Ohio, 2005. One of my crosses, Pink Pearl x Golden Russet. Formerly known as red fleshed seedling #3. Has a nice fine russet over yellow skin with intense red flesh. According to My Tree March 2025 ""Ruby Sipper (ADEM-004): This individual is unique and not genetically identical to any individual or cultivar in our database. We did not find a match for likely parentage in our database, which could suggest that your individual is a one-off seedling from a volunteer tree.""

Surprize – England, UK. New variety with orange skin and pink flesh. Crisp, juicy and delicious with a sweet sharp flavor. There is already an heirlom red fleshed variety called Surprise and a modern disease resistant variety called Sir Prize. And how ridiculous to use a homonym for the name! Be creative and find a different name!

Email me at [email protected] for information on scions.

And as always a great group to join is NAFEX!

Derek Mills
Hocking Hills Orchard at Four Seasons Cabins in SE Ohio. When visiting the Hocking Hills please stay a locally owned business, it matters!

10/07/2026

Scion requests have been coming since May so this is my official notice to reach out about ordering them from my Hocking Hills Orchard!

Email me at [email protected] for info. After this years grafting we are now at right around 2,000 apple varieties, 125 or so pear varieties and 100 grape varieties. The vast majority are all either heirloom or unusual varieties.

Some of the new ones grafted this year include: Brittle Sweet, Fair Maid of Devon, Golden Bittersweet, Green Custard, Harvey, Leathercoat Russet, Pear Apple, Powell's Russet, Studley Salamander and others.

And some of the different varieties grown here at our Hocking Hills Orchard include: Arkansas Black, Blue Pearmain, Clifford, Fennouilet de Ribours, Red Devil, Surprise, White Winter Pearmain and 1,993 more!

Derek A Mills
Hocking Hills Orchard at Four Seasons Cabins in the beautiful Hocking Hills of SE Ohio.

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 c***r apple ever grown in the US, making a dry c***r unsurpassed in flavor and keeping ability. the ‘must’ runs from the press very fine and clear. George Washington was a great admirer, preferring crab c***r 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 c***r 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.