Honeycrisp apple

In 1982, apple variety MN 1711 at the University of Minnesota’s apple breeding program was saved from the reject pile by horticulturist David Bedford and given another year to prove itself worthy of a patent. The apple, renamed Honeycrisp™, became Minnesota’s official state fruit and one of the most popular apple varieties in the nation.

The Honeycrisp (Malus pumila, cultivar Honeycrisp) was developed through cross-pollination at the University of Minnesota Horticultural Research Center in Victoria. After extensive testing for flavor, texture, and appearance, among other traits, it was patented in 1988 and released in 1991 to nurseries that sell to commercial apple growers.

Apple breeding is a lengthy process, taking up to thirty years for a new apple variety to hit the market after cross-pollination. The tree that Bedford saved in 1982 was one of four clones of MN 1711, which was cross-bred in 1960 by Dr. Cecil Stushnoff, former head of the Horticultural Research Center. The original MN 1711 was badly damaged during the winter of 1976–77 and discarded, but not before it was propagated to produce the clones, which were forgotten. Bedford, who was hired in 1979 after Stushnoff left the university, rediscovered one of the clones while reviewing trees marked for termination. After researching its origins, he believed that the mother tree was planted in less-than-optimal conditions and decided to give MN 1711 another chance. When he did, the results were delicious.

To capture the variety’s signature crunch and juicy texture, Bedford once described the Honeycrisp as “a piece of apple shrapnel in your mouth.” Its taste is often described as honey-sweet with a touch of tart. A medium- to large-sized apple compared with other varieties, in Minnesota it’s harvested between September 15 and October 5.

The first Honeycrisps hit grocery stores in 1996, nearly a decade after Dennis Courtier, owner of Pepin Heights Orchards in Lake City, took his first bite while sampling apples at the university. The fruit soon developed a loyal following among consumers, and in 2006, it became the Minnesota State Fruit thanks to a letter-writing campaign by a class of fourth graders at Andersen Elementary School in Bayport. That same year, the Honeycrisp was recognized by the AUTM (formerly known as the Association of University Technology Managers) as one of twenty-five innovations that changed the world, along with Google and the nicotine patch.

The Honeycrisp transformed Minnesota’s languishing apple-growing industry, bringing fresh revenue to small, family-run orchards. It was also an economic boon for the university, which received $16.5 million in royalties by 2019. These sales made the Honeycrisp its third-most-profitable invention after an anti-HIV drug and a gene-editing technique used in cancer treatment. The fruit’s patent expired in 2008, but the university continued to make money through overseas licensing.

Honeycrisps sell at a premium price—more than double that of other popular varieties, such as the Gala and Granny Smith. This is in part because they can be difficult to grow, with delicate skins that sunburn easily and a tendency to develop sunken brown spots, known as bitter pit. Only 55 to 60 percent of the apples make it to market. But the Honeycrisp is a hardy variety, bred to maintain its quality through Minnesota’s frigid winters and humid summers. It’s also renowned for its long shelf life, keeping its signature snap for at least seven months in refrigerated storage.

The university’s apple breeding program, one of three large-scale apple-breeding and genetics operations in the country, was created in 1878, discontinued, and then restarted in 1908 to create high quality winter-hardy apples. There are between 20,000 and 25,000 trees in various stages of development and evaluation at the research center at any given time. Only 1 percent are released to the public. Since its founding, the program has introduced twenty-nine apple varieties, but so far, Honeycrisp is its star.

For many years it was believed that Honeycrisp descended from Macoun and Honeygold apples, but DNA tests conducted by the university in 2017 determined that its parents were the Keepsake and MN 1627, an unreleased variety. Further research revealed an august ancestry, determining that Honeycrisp is the grandchild of Golden Delicious and Duchess of Oldenburg, which was brought from England to the United States in 1835.

Today, Honeycrisp is one of the top six apples grown in the United States. It is also commercially grown in Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, and Europe, where it’s known as Honeycrunch ®.