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‘Save the world from mediocre apples’: How the U of M develops the next big apple
The U of M is behind apple favorites such as Honeycrisp, Haralson and SweeTango. Now we’re getting a sneak peek at what will be the U’s 29th variety.
CHANHASSEN, Minnesota — Minnesota is known for its apples. Honeycrisp, Haralson, SweeTango, Zestar!, First Kiss and more are favorites thanks to the University of Minnesota’s fruit breeding program. While many are familiar with these Minnesota-grown favorites, it’s a decades-long process to get them into customers’ hands with thousands of them every year not making the cut.
The breeding process starts in the spring.
“We only get one chance each year to save the world from mediocre apples,” said David Bedford, senior research fellow and apple breeder at the UMN Horticultural Research Center at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.
Researchers identify what cross they want to make by looking at a variety’s strengths and weaknesses. For example, one parent may have a high resistance to apple scab while not crisp while the other parent may be crisp but not disease resistant. Before the apple trees bloom, the team will cover limbs they plan to use for breeding with a paper bag so open flowers are not exposed to the bees. The bags are removed for just a few minutes in order for them to apply the pollen they’ve chosen.
“We let the fruit grow for the rest of the season… inside that fruit are the hybrid seeds that were part of our cross. Those seeds will be extracted,” Bedford explained. “We’ll grow those seeds during the winter in a greenhouse and develop thousands of trees.”
Each year, the team adds 4,000-5,000 apple trees to their research orchards — located just west of Chanhassen.
Once the trees come to maturity, they have to survive the ultimate taste test.
“We have to make a pretty quick decision. So literally after five to six years, they have two to three minutes to impress us,” Bedford said.
Most of the apples are not good enough to make it to the second round.
“In our world, ‘not so bad’ is the kiss of death,” said Bedford, now in his 44th year of apple breeding and tasting.
Starting in August every year, crews spend two and a half months tasting hundreds of apples every week.
In the early years, Bedford did it all. Then Winford McIntosh, a senior research plot technician at the UMN Horticultural Research Center, joined him.
“It was just he and I for many years. But now we’ve expanded it to a four-person team to, I guess, share the pain you might say,” said Bedford, laughing.
The four-person team spends about eight hours a week tasting hundreds of apples. McIntosh explained that just the day before our interview, the team collectively bit into about 1,200 apples.
“If you have too many harsh apples, too many with high acidity, then your mouth just goes blank. It’s basically on fire. At that point you have to stop,” Bedford said.
To find out if an apple is ready to taste, the apple gets sprayed with iodine. Starch is found in an immature apple. The darker the apple appears, the more starch it contains. As the apple ripens, starch is converted to sugar.
The team uses a starch-iodine test chart to determine the apple’s ripeness.
Trees with ripe fruit get three chances to impress.
“We have the best of hope for all of them but the reality is only a small percentage of them are good enough to make the cut,” Bedford said.
Trees that do not make the cut, get marked for removal with orange spray paint. If they find one worth considering for the second stage of testing, it gets a blue tie. They will then come back the next day to try again with fresh taste buds.
In a normal year, they will eliminate 3,000-4,000 apple trees.
While appearance matters, Bedford and McIntosh spent most of the time during our visit discussing an apple’s flavor and texture.
“We’re looking for good texture… and flavor that is high sugar, high acid but balanced between the two so that the acid isn’t enough to burn your mouth out but the acid needs to be present in order to have that flavor pack a punch,” McIntosh explained.
One out of every 300 trees or so makes it out of the first round and into the second; Bedford said it ends up being about 10-12 selections per year.
“It’s given a testing number. That tree is cloned… we replicate it genetically by grafting four new trees and those go on to the next round of testing that’s called ‘second test.'”
McIntosh said they often call second test the “Disneyland of apple breeding.” “It’s just magical. It really is,” he said.
Researchers spend anywhere from five to fifteen years in second test evaluating about 20 different characteristics.
Only one out of about 10,000 makes it to the end. In 1991, it was Honeycrisp.
“Honeycrisp just exploded the possibilities… I feel for us in breeding, and for the consumer, once you’ve had that Honeycrisp texture, it’s hard to go back,” Bedford said.
Honeycrisp is now the U’s most widely known apple. It’s the third bestseller in the U.S. in terms of volume but number one in terms of revenue.
“It’s got a special spot in our hearts,” Bedford said.
The apple breeding program has a long history of developing high-quality, hardy apples.
The original program began in the late 1800s in hopes of developing apple trees that could survive Minnesota’s winters. But the program began in earnest in the early 1900s after the U purchased property in Carver County. It’s one of only three university-based apple breeding programs in the country.
Haralson came out in 1922 and is now celebrating its 100th birthday.
“If you grew up in Minnesota, you probably knew about Haralson and that was our first hit,” Bedford said.
SweeTango came in 2008 — inheriting the crisp texture of Honeycrisp and the juiciness of Zestar!
Standing next to the original tree, Bedford said, “It was so remarkable that it had that perfect balance of sugar and acid and that crisp, Honeycrisp texture. We knew we had a winner right away.”
Finding a winner takes about 20 years. The program’s 29th variety is now waiting to be announced. They’re going through the first stages of release which include patenting and naming the variety.
While Bedford cannot say much about the new apple, he mentioned, “I can tell you that it’s a Honeycrisp child. It has wonderful texture, a very fruity… some would say almost a tropical flavor.”
Once the apple is introduced, newly released trees are licensed and distributed to commercial growers to begin propagating. It takes another four to five years before consumers will then see those apples in grocery stores.
About the 29th variety, Bedford said, “I can tell you after 44 years of doing this, there are no perfect apples but some are a lot closer to perfection than others and I think this one got most of the traits right.”
After hearing Bedford talk about apples, it may be surprising to learn that he didn’t always like apples.
“That was because I was raised on Red Delicious; I like to say I’m a recovering Red Delicious eater,” Bedford said.
What are his favorite apples?
“That’s like asking someone who their favorite child is. I’ve got several favorites and they all come from Honeycrisp. I’d have to say Honeycrisp, SweeTango and First Kiss are my favorites,” Bedford said “But you know what, we’ve got some… that could rival them for my absolute favorite.”
The U’s 28th variety, Triumph, was introduced in 2021 — a cross between Honeycrisp and Liberty. It has a high resistance to apple scab.
Home gardeners will be able to get their hands on Triumph trees in the spring at garden centers and nurseries but it will take another four to five years before appearing in grocery stores.
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Most agree that pharmacy benefit managers entered the market in the 1980s as Americans started using more drugs than ever before.
MINNEAPOLIS — Editor’s Note: The above video was first published on 6/7/2024.
As the election draws nearer both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris — the Republican and Democratic nominees for president, respectively — are speaking up about their respective plans for making health care more affordable for Americans.
Vice President Harris has specifically named PBMs or Pharmacy Benefit Managers as a target for more oversight and transparency and Trump issued an executive order calling out PBMs back in 2020.
PBMs primarily run prescription drug coverage for insurers, large employers and other clients. They also set up formularies, or lists of covered drugs, and negotiate rebates off drug prices.
Most agree that pharmacy benefit managers entered the market in the 1980s as Americans started using more drugs than ever before. The presence of the PBMs initially let pharmacists focus more on their businesses by handling backend tasks and saved insurers money through bargaining with drug manufacturers.
The heightened scrutiny comes as the Federal Trade Commission announced a lawsuit against the three largest PBMs in the country, Caremark, Express Scripts and Optum Rx. Those three companies process roughly 80% of prescriptions nationwide, according to the FTC.
The FTC said the rebating practices of the three companies have led to artificially inflated list prices for people. List prices are what a drugmaker initially sets for a product and what people who have high deductible plans or no insurance are sometimes stuck paying for prescriptions.
Harris’ campaign promises that, if elected, Harris “will increase competition and demand transparency in the health care industry, starting by cracking down on pharmaceutical companies who block competition and abusive practices by pharmaceutical middlemen who squeeze small pharmacies’ profits and raise costs for consumers.”
The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, which lobbies for PBMs nationwide has long argued that their work is imperative in saving consumers money on drugs.
“PBMs support transparency that empowers prescribers, plan sponsors, policymakers, and, most importantly, patients, with the information they need to lower costs while improving access to needed medications. What we don’t support are measures that would empower drug companies to raise costs.” Greg Lopes, vice president of public affairs., for the PCMA.
Lawyers are preparing opening statements in the trial of Adam Fravel, who is accused of killing the mother of his children, Madaline Kingsbury.
MANKATO, Minn. — After a week and a half of selection, jurors have been chosen for the trial of Adam Fravel, and opening statements could potentially begin this week.
Fravel is accused of killing his longtime partner and mother of his children, Madeline Kingsbury.
While the alleged murder took place in Winona County, the trial will unfold in Mankato, the seat of Blue Earth County. A judge supported a defense motion to change the venue for the trial, saying it would be difficult to select an impartial jury in Winona County due to extensive pre-trial publicity.
Kingsbury went missing on March 31, 2023. Authorities say she was last seen dropping her kids off at daycare. For weeks, a massive search effort was conducted, with hundreds helping in the search. Her remains were found on June 7 in a remote location close to where Fravel admitted to being on the day she disappeared.
Fravel was the last known person to see her. He said he had nothing to do with her disappearance and fought for custody of the children while Kingsbury was missing.
Fravel is charged with two counts of first-degree murder – one for murder while committing domestic abuse and one for premeditated murder – along with two additional counts of second-degree murder.
The jury consists of 12 jurors and five alternates. A court spokesperson told KARE 11 they seated 11 men and six women, with opening statements starting this Thursday morning at the earliest.
Financial advisor Ayo Idowu visited KARE 11 News at Noon to talk about an emergency nest egg and how much you should consider putting away.
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — It’s no secret that Americans are increasingly challenged when it comes to making financial ends meet. With the rising cost of food, housing and other necessities – combined with the impact of inflation – many are living from paycheck to paycheck, without a cushion if something were to happen.
According to financial planner Ayo Idowu, that underlines the importance of establishing an emergency fund. Just how much that is depends on whether you are single with few financial responsibilities, or someone with a family, kids, a mortgage and car payment.
- Those who are younger with fewer responsibilities should aim for having enough to cover three months of living expenses (not income)
- Folks with homes, cars, kids and other obligations should shoot for an emergency fund that can cover six months of living expenses
If you’re wondering where to find money to fill that fund, Idowu suggests being creative. He is currently in the midst of an “October Fast” with fewer social outings, eating at home instead of out, putting travel on hold and putting all the money saved into his emergency fund.
If you have questions, check out Ayo Idowu’s web page at Integrate Wealth Management.
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Former Duluth East hockey coach Mike Randolph violated employee conduct policies
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