Golden Delicious is a popular supermarket apple variety with a reputation for a bland flavour. However, when home-grown in good conditions, and allowed to ripen on the tree is a very different proposition - a handsomely-shaped apple with a golden-green skin, crisp juicy flesh, and a rich sweet flavour, reminscent of raw cane sugar. If you like crisp sweet apples then it is hard to beat a home-grown Golden Delicious, picked late in the autumn when properly ripe.
Home-grown Golden Delicious apples still retain the advantages of commercially grown examples - they are versatile for eating fresh or using in the kitchen, and of course they are one of the best apples for long-term storage, retaining flavour and crispness for several months in a cold shed or in the fridge.
Next deliveries: December 2024 - February 2025
Golden Delicious is easy to grow, and very productive. It prefers a dry climate, and a warm autumn helps.
It is a good pollinator for other apple varieties because it flowers over a long period.
Golden Delicious was discovered in West Virginia, USA, in the 1890s, and is probably a seedling of an old American variety called Grimes Golden.
This variety description was researched and written by Orange Pippin staff. Last checked: 2023.