It is Fall in Minnesota and time for the Apple harvest. As a recent Minnesota transplant, I am enjoying the season. It is interesting to me that my first job was in Cortland, New York, home of the Cortland apple and I now live in Minnesota home of the Honeycrisp and other popular apples. In between, I lived in North Dakota home of wheat and sugar beets.
I have spent a good proportion of my life around college campuses and I find all aspects of colleges and universities fascinating. I was educated at Iowa State University which is Iowa’s land grant institution. You can translate land grant as agricultural institution if you are not familiar with the label. The University of Minnesota is also the state’s land grant institution with one facility in Minneapolis and the other, the agricultural-focused programs, in Saint Paul. It just occurred to me that there are twin universities in the Twin Cities.
The horticulture program at the University has been very successful and one of the major accomplishments has been the development of apple varieties. We visit the Arboretum and buy some apples grown in the university orchards. I spent a little time in the store taking a few pictures and looking up some facts about the program.
The university’s apple breeding program has released 29 apple varieties in its history. The first was released in 1920. The most successful release was the Honeycrisp which was first available in 1991. This apple has made the university a great deal of money and is ranked as the 9th most popular apple and the best tasting apple. It is also the most expensive apple, but we buy them anyway.
