Hansen's Red Flesh

Hansen’s Red Flesh is a small, conic crabapple with deep red skin and pink-red flesh. This variety produces dark pink blossoms. Minneapolis-based cider maker Colin Post harvested this apple from our orchards in 2023 and describes it as “tart, tannic, high sugar, and most importantly, red-fleshed!” This apple is excellent for making jelly, sauce, and cider. Ripens mid-season. A cross between Niedzwetzkyana and Elk River (Malus coronaria), this apple was bred by Niels Hansen at the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station in Brookings, SD, as part of an effort to develop more cold-hardy apple varieties. This is a particularly unusual variety, as Asian apple species, like Malus niedzwetzkyana, don’t readily cross with American apple species, like Malus coronaria.