Hocking Hills Orchard

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

03/16/2026

For St Patrick's Day a few heirloom varieties growing at our Hocking Hills Orchard that originated in Ireland. 22 out of our apple varieties originated in Ireland.

Allen's Everlasting - Ireland, mid 1800's. One of the best late dessert varieties.

Appletown Wonder - Ireland, 1850's.Very large with surprisingly good flavor for such large fruit.

Bloody Butcher - cooking and cider variety.

Golden Royal = Ireland, 1950's. Extremely sweet yellow apple that ripens in August and is sometimes called Honeycombe.

Honeyball - Very large fruit that is esteemed for its exceptional flavor.

Irish Peach - Ireland, late 1700's. Another great tasting early ripening apple variety.

And for those who might not be aware, NAFEX is a great group to join and support if you have an interest in preserving, finding and keeping heirloom varieties of fruit growing.

Good luck to all with your grafting and growing season and for a full harvest in 2026!

Derek Mills
Hocking Hills Orchard at the Four Seasons Cabins in the beautiful Hocking Hills of SE Ohio. Home to soon to be 2001 apple varieties after this Spring's grafting.

And if you visit the Hocking Hills please stay and patronage locally owned and operated businesses, it matters!

Hockinghillsorchard.com
Fourseasonscabinrental.com

03/06/2026

Receiving a lot of calls and emails regarding my grafting class for 2026. It will be on Sunday April 19th from 1:00 until 3:00 PM at the same location as last year: The Ridges, building 22, room 221 at OU in Athens, Ohio.

Hosted by a group doing a great job for the environment, Raccoon Creek Watershed Group. The cost is only $10, I teach the class for free, and for $10 you get the class, an MM.111 root stock and a choice of an heirloom scion variety that I provide. You also have the option to buy additional root stock from Raccoon Creek or additional scions from me. Extra scions from me are $5 and I always bring some really rare ones in addition to the ones for the class. Also, you must provide your own cutting knife.

And with this grafting season I am adding 101 new varieties, including some new red fleshed and hard cider ones, so our total will be just over 2,000 varieties of apples. They’re all going onto MM.111 rootstock as that works the best for us here with our soil. And for the majority of these new varieties they have come from swaps so this was a very good year in terms of new varieties.

Some of the new ones include:
Alabaster, different varieties of Antonovka including Mitchurin, Shafran, Zheltaia, Kamenichka, Polutorafuntovaya, Debnicka. And Askar, Azeroly Anise, Ball's Pippin, Brittle Sweet, Bullet, Coul Blush, Early Bird, Golden Bittersweet, Green Custard, Greenstar, Ivette, Josey, Leathercoat Russet, Liaoning Purple, Pear Apple, Pink Delicious, Powell's Russet, Red Russet, Reinette Marbree, Scotch Bridget, St Everard, Studley Salamander, Sweet William, Thomas Hunt, Transparent Codlin, Tupstones and more. A few descriptions below.

Alabaster - Very pale skin punctuated with prominent lenticels with flesh that is also very pale. Said to ripen in late September and is juicy, sweet and very richly flavored.

Azeroly Anise - French variety with anise flavor developed in the mid 1800's.

Bullet - discovered in North Carolina before 1850. I grafted this one because it is said to bloom very late.

Brittle Sweet - Its origin in America was unknown according to Charles Downing in his ‘The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America’ in the 1865 edition. He rated it very highly, among the best and deserving more attention.

Coul Blush - Most northerly grown variety in Scotland, grown since 1827. Early ripening mid sized fruit.

Pixirosso - A modern bred red fleshed variety.

Reinette Marbree - named from the pretty veining of russet that covers the apple. It was first recorded in 1760 in The Netherlands.

Spring will be here before you know it!

And for those who might not be aware, NAFEX is a great group to join and support if you have an interest in preserving, finding and keeping heirloom varieties of fruit growing.

Good luck to all with your grafting and growing season and for a full harvest in 2026!

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

And if you visit the Hocking Hills please stay and patronage locally owned and operated businesses, it matters!

Hockinghillsorchard.com
Fourseasonscabinrental.com

02/17/2026

I got over 100 reactions on one of my posts last week! Thanks everyone for your support! 🎉

02/07/2026

A big thank you to all who ordered scions from our Hocking Hills Orchard at our Four Seasons Cabins here in SE Ohio again this year. I appreciate you helping to keep heirloom and unusual varieties of apples and pears growing!

It was another crazy and busy year with me once again sending scions to all 50 states. Last year I said to myself to never send out that many again and I would wrap it up by the end of January. Well, this year I did wind up sending out even more than ever before, and I have been swapping and selling scions for 35+ years, but did have a hard stop at the end of January.

And just so people know the process, it is not just me walking out my back door and getting some cuttings. it takes a whole day for one batch. The first step is to put together a spreadsheet of where the trees are located that I am going to take cuttings from. Our orchard is in three different locations on our 55 acres and I will easily walk 12,000 or so steps gathering cuttings. I gather 150 or so scions every time I go out and that used to only take me 5 hours but now it takes 6. Then back inside where the next 3 hours are spent prepping the scions by dipping the cut ends in wax, then everything is sorted by the requestor name, finally packaging and addressing. The next morning everything gathered the day before is mailed out and then the process starts over again.

Scions were sent to all 50 states and another batch that I sent back to the USDA for some varieties they have lost. And once again I sent scions at no charge to historical societies, 501 c3 groups, scout troops and school science clubs.

And for any numbers people. I sent out cuttings of just over 1,300 different varieties out of my 1,901. And one person towards the end of my season somehow ordered 30 different ones that no one else had ordered. What are the odds of that?

My goal is always to get scions to the individual grower and groups mentioned above. And I know the people at our post office cringed when they saw my yellow truck pull up and me jump out with another load of packages to mail!

In 2026 I am adding 101 new varieties, including some new red fleshed and hard cider ones, so our total will be just over 2,000 varieties of apples.

Some of the new ones include:
Alabaster, Azeroly Anise, Ball's Pippin, Brittle Sweet, Bullet, Coul Blush, Early Bird, Golden Bittersweet, Green Custard, Leathercoat Russet, Liaoning purple, Red Russet, Reinette Marbree, Scotch Bridget, St Everard, Studley Salamander, Sweet William, Thomas Hunt, Transparent Codlin and Tupstones.

Good luck to all with your grafting and growing season and for a full harvest in 2026!
Derek Mills
Hocking Hills Orchard at the Four Seasons Cabins