David Bedford bites into 500 apples a day in peak season, so he knows a thing or two about taste and texture. And when the first out-of-state Honeycrisps started rolling into Minnesota grocery stores 15 years ago, he noticed a problem.
Bedford and Jim Luby at the University of Minnesota bred Honeycrisps for an “explosively crisp” texture that helped make them a big seller. But the out-of-state Honeycrisps, sometimes grown in over-warm climates or stored too long, didn’t make the grade. “I can think of some where it was a spongy crisp,” Bedford said.
He and the U could do nothing about it. “We didn’t really control the name,” Bedford said. “You just had to stand back and hope the poor fruit didn’t ruin the market.”
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