Description

Fresh Michigan apples taste best when the trip from tree to table is short, so we pick and pack every order the same week it ships. King Orchards has grown fruit on the glacier-formed ridges between Torch Lake and Grand Traverse Bay since 1980, and apples have become a cornerstone of the farm. When you order from us you are getting fruit off trees our family manages, not repacked storage fruit from a distributor.

Why fresh Michigan apples from these ridges taste different

Our orchards sit on drumlins, the high rolling hills glaciers left behind, with Lake Michigan a few miles to the west. That water moderates our temperatures in both directions. It holds the spring bloom back just long enough to dodge most late frosts, and it stretches fall out with warm afternoons and cool nights. Cool nights are what build sugar and acid at the same time, which is why apples grown up here come off the tree crisp and balanced instead of soft and flat. The soil is nutrient dense and drains well, another reason this stretch of Antrim County has been planted in fruit for generations.

The varieties shipping now

Eight varieties ship from the farm over the course of a season, and what we can pack depends on what is coming off the tree that week. Two are open right now, both starting October 5.

Honeycrisp. Loud and crisp, more sweet than tart, with a coarse cell structure that makes it shatter when you bite it. Best eaten cold, straight out of the refrigerator. This is the variety people ask for by name and the one that sells out first.

McIntosh. Softer, much more aromatic, tart with an almost winey note, and thin skinned. A classic Michigan apple and the best sauce apple we grow, because it breaks down on its own with very little sugar added. Plan to eat these within a couple of weeks.

Between the two you have most of what a household needs. Honeycrisp for lunches and snacking, McIntosh for sauce, and either one works in a crisp or a galette. Later in the season we open Cortland, Gala, Empire, Mutsu, Northern Spy, and Ida Red. If you are waiting on one of those, use the notify option below and we will email you the day it goes live.

How we pack and ship fresh Michigan apples

Orders are picked, hand sorted, and packed with padding so nothing shifts in transit. We ship on Mondays only, so your box arrives before the weekend. We deliver to 48 states.

Storing your fresh Michigan apples once the box arrives

Apples hold longest just above freezing with a little humidity, so the refrigerator crisper beats the counter fruit bowl by weeks. Keep them away from onions and strong-smelling foods, since apples pick up odors, and store them apart from bananas and tomatoes, which give off ethylene gas and speed up ripening. Open the box when it arrives and set aside any bruised fruit to use first. Honeycrisp will hold in the crisper for a month or more if you keep it cold. McIntosh is thinner skinned and softens faster, so eat it first or cook it down into sauce and freeze it.

Ordering window and availability

Fresh apple shipping opens October 5. Orders placed before then are held and ship out that week in the order they came in. Because this is real harvested fruit and not warehouse inventory, varieties come and go as the season moves. If what you want shows as unavailable, follow us on social media and join our email newsletter to be notified when new apple varites are available. Questions about a specific variety, a large order, or a gift shipment: email info@kingorchards.com or call (231) 544-6479.