By Cora Hyun Jung
Murphy News Service
If you live in Minnesota there’s a good chance that your favorite apple variety is the same as many others who live here.
“Honeycrisp, period,” Tony Warner, an electrical engineering sophomore at St. Paul College, said when asked about his favorite apple as he picked Honeycrisp apples from a bin at Cub Foods. “I tried pretty much every apple you can think of, but Honeycrisp is the best. I think it’s very crunchy and sweet.”
As a big apple fan, Warner said he eats apples every day.
“I go grocery shopping every week to buy apples, especially Honeycrisp apples,” he said.
Honeycrisp is a much beloved variety of apple developed by the University of Minnesota.
“Honeycrisp is about the No. 5 or 6 (most popular) apple in the United States,” Dr. Jim Luby said. Luby is a researcher who has been working for the U’s fruit breeding program since 1982. “I think people like especially its crisp and juicy texture, and the flavor is a nice balance between sweetness and tartness.”
Scott Spears, 25, who has worked as a produce team leader at a Target store for the past four years agreed with Luby’s assessment.
“The best-selling apple in our store is definitely Honeycrisp, and maybe Gala apples,” he said. “We sell 10-12 boxes a day, and on average each box contains 50-75 apples”
As with Warner, apple lovers who might be worried about a recent outbreak of listeria in pre-packed caramel apples from California might breathe a sigh of relief after finding out all the other apples were not infected by the deadly bacteria. The Centers for Disease Control reported listeria infected apples were recalled in early January.
“Honeycrisp is very resistant to apple scab, which is a disease that can cause the apple to crack and have a brown scab on it,” Luby said. “It’s a fungus that doesn’t affect humans, but it can affect the plants.”
Luby said he was unaware of any cases in which U apples have been infected by any kinds of disease or bacteria that make people sick.
“But you can get sick just from eating too many apples,” he added with a laugh.
It has been more than 100 years since the U launched its apple studies program, one of only three such programs at U.S. universities.
“The history of our apple program goes long before I came,” Luby said. “It goes back the late 1800s.” He said the U has developed 27 varieties of apples so far. The U’s latest apple being developed, the MN55, is being readied for the marketplace, probably within four to five years, Luby said.
“The very first (MN55) tree is being made right now,” Luby said. He said that it had just been decided that it would be the next apple to come out.
“Even once you make the decision, it still takes many years,” he added. He said it takes two years just to formulate a new tree variety in research labs, and then grafting and growing a tree must follow. Then the tree is sold to farmers, who grow new varieties in their orchards for about two years before the trees begin to bear fruit.
Sue Kincade, 62, of St. Paul, was looking for “the new apple” at her local Target store on last Thursday.
“I heard about the new apple that is coming out, so I was looking for it,” she said.
However, as Luby said, it is not likely that Kincade can see the new apple anytime soon.
“People sometimes think when you want to put out of new apple, you just flip the switch and you will see it tomorrow,” Luby said with a smile. He said it will only be available on the market in 2018.
Even though it takes more time than people expected, it’s worth waiting for. The Star Tribune reported that the new variety brings the best of two popular varieties, crossing the popular Honeycrisp with the MonArk, distinguished by its early ripening date.
“It is very crisp like Honeycrisp, and flavor would be a little bit more tart,” Luby said as he explained the taste of the new MN55 apple.
Warner and Kincade said they will definitely give it a try when the new apple comes out.
Even though consumers will not see the MN55 anytime in the near future, they can enjoy Honeycrisps longer than usual this year because of a larger-than-normal crop yield.
“The apple cropping in the United States in 2014 was one of the biggest ones ever,” Luby said. “One of things that we are going to see is probably Honeycrisp is available longer through the winter and spring here than previous years because we had a very big crop.”
He added that many more Honeycrisp trees are getting old enough that they are starting to bear a lot of fruit.
The eventual marketplace name for the MN55 is still being considered, and Luby, one of the people who came up with the name for Honeycrisp, said it will be given a name when it is ready to be on market.
“We are in the process of thinking it right now,” Luby said. He said it’s a very difficult thing to name an apple, and actually it is worse than naming a child.
“It has to be a unique name,” Luby said. “It’s OK to have three people with the same name in a class, but not in the supermarket.”
Reporter Cora Hyun Jung is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.