By Mollee Francisco
Teeth crack through its firm red skin and taste buds scramble to process the flavor - cool and juicy, but also sweet and refreshing.
Bite after bite, it continues to surprise and delight until there is nothing left but a stem, a core, and a sticky hand.
Such was the experience of sampling what is referred to only as apple No. 1955.
You won’t find it at the grocery store or even hanging on a tree at your local orchard. It is one of the many apples being reviewed at the University of Minnesota’s apple breeding program.
One day, it may find its place among Zestars, Honeycrisps and SnowSweets, but for now, it remains only apple No. 1955.
No mediocre apples
Next year, the University of Minnesota’s apple breeding program will celebrate its 100th year of existence.
Thousands of apples have been created during that time. A handful of those have been released to the public. More are being reviewed for continued use in the program, while many, many more have been discarded along the way. It’s all a part of the quest to create the best apples for public consumption.
“Our job is to save the world from mediocre apples,” said apple breeder David Bedford.
For Bedford, that would be anything resembling the Red Delicious, an apple he grew up eating and hating. It wasn’t until he was in college that he realized how wonderfully complex the apple can be.
“There is such a range of textures and flavors,” he said.
Bedford is now an expert on the apple. He’s been with the University’s Horticultural Research Center for the last 28 years. Creating and tasting apples is his life.
He uses a 20-point list of criteria for each of the apples that he reviews. Texture, flavor, appearance and growability top that list of the most important characteristics to make note of.
“Most of the apples (we breed) are actually not good enough to go on,” he admits.
That’s not because they’re creating sub-par apples, he said, but because they’re looking for that “wow factor.”
Each year, some 20,000 seedlings are under evaluation. Of those, there are maybe 15 trees considered good enough to go on to the next round of testing, Bedford said.
Slow process
It is a slow and laborious process to release an apple to the public – one that involves plenty of disappointment and calls for ample amounts of patience. Decades can, and do, pass between the time when an apple is bred and when it is released.
The process begins in the spring when an apple breeder puts pollen from one desired tree onto a blossom on another desired tree. The blossom is then covered with a plastic bag to prevent any further pollination.
“Every cross I make, I have an idea of what I’m hoping for,” said Bedford. But he admits that cross-breeding is largely a guessing game. Not unlike human reproduction, which genes and characteristics will be passed along to apple offspring is never guaranteed.
In the fall of the year, they collect the fruit and the seeds from the newly created apples. Seedlings are planted and the trees are allowed to grow until they begin to bear fruit. That can take five to six years.
Once matured, Bedford begins the tedious process of tasting the apples. “I can only do about six hours of apple tasting a day,” he said.
The apples’ characteristics are carefully noted in a book and scored. A score of 7 or above will keep an apple in the program, but once a breed begins to sink below that mark, it’s at risk for elimination. Ninety-nine percent of the apples Bedford tastes are not good enough to move on.
“In a 20- to 30-year span, maybe one out of 10,000 trees is a keeper,” said Bedford.
When the breeders find a tree they really like, they graft four new trees.
“That’s the old version of cloning,” said Bedford. They then test those trees for 10 to 15 years, hoping to find an apple that shows consistency before they consider releasing it to the public.
On the map
MN 447 is the newest release to come out of the University’s program (see related story). Prior to that, the SnowSweet was released in 2005. But it was the release of the Honeycrisp in 1991 that put the University’s program on the map.
The Honeycrisp, with its unique crunch and long shelf life, has quickly become one of America’s favorite apples in addition to being grown around the world.
Bedford said that the Honeycrisp release, which he wrote the patent for, gave their program sudden credibility, but noted that they aren’t necessarily aiming to duplicate that success with every release.
“That put the bar plenty high, but we’re not looking for home runs in everything we release,” said Bedford. “There can be some nice triples, doubles and singles.”
For Bedford, stretching the limitations of the apple is fascinating.
“I’m very interested in niche apples,” he said. That can be anything from an apple that is shaped like a donut to an apple with a chocolate flavor to it – all apples he has seen and tasted.
“I try to keep an open mind,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bedford feels fortunate to be working with such an amazing product.
“It’s the perfect food,” he said. “It’s completely portable and it’s nature’s little medicine chest.”
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