The harvest is underway at most of the Iowa’s apple orchards. At Deal’s Orchard in Jefferson, manager Chris Deal says they have over 40 varieties of apples.
The 2026 apple picking season has started just a shade earlier than normal, according to Deal.
Deal says the Honeycrisp apple — introduced to consumers in 1991 — changed the apple market because it showed consumers are willing to pay a little bit more for a high quality apple. It’s also led to the development of new varieties.
The most recent data from the Iowa Department of Agriculture indicates there are over 140 apple orchards in Iowa and about 500 Iowans are directly engaged in growing apples.
Deal and his brother are the 4th generation of their family to operate the orchard, which dates back to 1917 when their great grandfather planted apple trees at the farm near Jefferson. Iowa was a major apple growing state during that era, with orchards on over 67-thousand Iowa farms. A blizzard in 1940 wiped out 80 percent of Iowa’s apple orchards.
