In this space, I recently published some misinformation about some research into the breeding ancestry of the Honeycrisp apple.
I regret the error. Here is the real story.
The finding was presented at the January 5 meeting of the Minnesota Apple Grower's Association.
At the meeting, Jim Luby, of the Department of Horticulture Science at the University of Minnesota, explained that Duchess of Oldenberg and Golden Delicious are grandparents of the famous Honeycrisp apple, based on recent genetic analysis.
Honeycrisp's bloodlines have long been a bit of a mystery.
Honeycrisp's original plant patent (1975) describes the apple as "a seedling of known parentage....produced from the cross number AE 603, Macoun x Honeygold."
But in 2005, a genetic analysis concluded that the popular apple's parents were Keepsake and an unknown variety, likely a test apple that had been discarded as unsuitable. The same work ruled out both Macoun and Honeygold.
Luby, according to a grower who was present on January 5, identified Duchess and Golden D as the parents of the unknown test apple. So the ancestry for Honeycrisp can be expressed as follows:
Keepsake x (Duchess of Oldenberg x Golden Delicious)
Keepsake is a Frostbite x Northern Spy cross, according to Luby, though many other authorities give Malinda in place of Keepsake.
Luby is a Honeycrisp authority: his name is on the 1975 plant patent (with David Bedford) and also on the 2005 paper, (with Bedford and also Paul McCabe, Andrew Baumgarten, and Kyle Onan).
The authors of the paper note, "Despite anecdotal evidence, and even breeding records, the origin of many important plant cultivars remains unknown or uncertain."
Slowly but surely, DNA analysis is filling in those blanks.
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You ever review the Keepsake?
ReplyDeleteVery Honeycrisp like.
Reputedly a super keeper that matures in January and keeps through April.
DeleteI have never had the pleasure alas,
I also wonder why Frostbite, which has been used in Minnesota breeding for some time is not more known. I have Frostbite scionwood on its way and am anxious to grow some. Limited reports point towards a rich and sweet apple.
Delete@Paul, my theory is that it is difficult for these regional varieties to take hold because of the structure of the marketplace, which rewards the status quo.
DeleteTo break into the wholesale markets you need a big marketing battering ram, and to do that you need a revenue stream. And, to have that stream you probably need a current patent that give you exclusive rights to the fruit.
My grandfather, Torfine Levarde Aamodt (b. 1900), was professor of horticulture/entymology at the University of Minnesota, a Minnesota State Horticuluralist, and founded Aamodt's Apple Orchard in a rural setting outside Stillwater / St. Paul in 1950.
DeleteIn partnership with his fellows at the University, he grew innumerable cross-breeding varieties including, in particular, the Keepsake apple about which you here inquire.
The Keepsake is, IMO, VERY much like the Honeycrisp, and as I grew up and worked on the orchard it remained (as it still is) always my favorite.
I might note that I was born in April 1960 (purportedly when a critical cross leading to the Honeycrisp was made), and that my grandfather, not a loquacious man, told me when walking through the orchard hand-in-hand (teaching me about the importance of insects and apple trees) when I was a little girl that the Keepsake apple was “your apple.” It was for that reason (quite atop its inherent sterling qualities) that the Keepsake was my very favorite, both then (from about 1968 as I remember that walk with my grandfather) and still today.
Keepsakes were released commercially in 1978, but we had long been eating them ourselves on the orchard; the variety is a very juicy, extremely crisp apple of such exceeding sweetness that my Aunt JoAnn Aamodt told me she found no need to add sugar when using Keepsakes to prepare apple pies for sale.
The Keepsake was named for its excellent storage properties, keeping well for up to six months in proper cool storage conditions. It attains peak fresh-eating quality in January or February, but retains good eating quality in storage through April. The Keepsake’s flavor is distinctively strong, sweet, and has been compared to the taste of sugarcane and clover honey, a flavor that improves and mellows with age during storage.
It is the sweet, hard-and-crisp Keepsake which IMO served as the KEY progenitor parent apple to the Honeycrisp (which was later and continues to also be grown in the Aamodt orchard.)
The Keepsake is smallish, somewhat tapering and irregular in shape, and its skin is colored primarily red over a greenish-yellow background with creamy white patches. Sadly to me, it was considered by some to be visually not attractive enough for broad commercial sale (despite its outstanding eating qualities).
So the only time Keepsake received any press was when genetic fingerprinting in 2004 proved the vastly popularized Honeycrisp is genetically derived from parents Keepsake (‘Northern Spy’ x ‘Frostbite’) and MN1627 (‘Duchess of Oldenburg’ × ‘Golden Delicious’).
@Indie, what a wonderful story! Thank you.
DeleteHere it is 2021 and I still have not been able to lay my taste buds on a Keepsake, though I have sampled some other iconic Minnesota apples. But, hope springs eternal!