From the Living Museum
Fireside
- Origin
- University of Minnesota breeding program; introduced 1943 (MN 993); Wealthy × Northwest Greening by DNA
- Era
- Introduced 1943
- Type / use
- Dessert · Fresh eating
History & Stories
Large, attractive red fruit with crisp, juicy, sweet flesh. Unique as one of the successful cold-hardy dessert apples from the Minnesota program that also produced Honeycrisp and Keepsake. Good performance in northern climates.
Folklore & Name
University of Minnesota introduction. Name suggests a cozy, fireside quality; successful cold-hardy dessert apple from the same program that later produced Honeycrisp.
Digging into the History
Below my own notes, here is what the old fruit books and today’s collections record about this apple, kept apart from the stories people tell.
What we know
Fireside was introduced by the University of Minnesota in 1943 under the selection number MN 993 1. The university's breeders recorded its parents as "unknown" 1. In 2022 a DNA study of the program's apples identified them as Wealthy and Northwest Greening, and called Fireside one of "the two most important regional cultivars in the 20th century," along with Haralson 2.
The competing accounts
- University of Minnesota cultivar table 1: introduced in 1943 as MN 993; parents recorded as unknown.
- 2022 DNA study of the Minnesota program's apples 2: parents identified as Wealthy and Northwest Greening.
Most likely (our judgment, not a certainty): Wealthy × Northwest Greening. DNA evidence filled a gap the original breeding records left open, and both parents were widely grown in the Upper Midwest at the time.
What we think: stories & traditions
A Minnesota winter apple. The university's own table describes it simply as a "sweet late season apple" 1. The program had been breeding apples for northern winters since 1908, and Fireside was one of its main successes before Honeycrisp 2,3.
Old records, fresh answers. The UMN horticulture department explains that many of the program's early records were incomplete. DNA work was able to "confirm, correct, or complete the parentage of 16 of the 22 cultivars introduced between 1920 and 1991," including Fireside 3. Its Wealthy parent was, according to the same study, "a widely grown cultivar in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries" and a frequent parent of the older Minnesota releases 2.
Sources
- James J. Luby, "The University of Minnesota is home to one of the oldest, continuous fruit breeding programs in North America," Table 1, University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy. conservancy.umn.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/d3d32bef-c102-480b-86fb-f1a78117986c/content
- N.P. Howard et al., "Extended Pedigrees of Apple Cultivars from the University of Minnesota Breeding Program Elucidated Using SNP Array Markers," HortScience 57(3): 472–477 (2022). experts.umn.edu/en/publications/extended-pedigrees-of-apple-cultivars-from-the-university-of-minn/
- University of Minnesota Department of Horticultural Science, "The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree" (16 March 2022). horticulture.umn.edu/news/apple-family-tree
Curious about Fireside?
Email us at drgoss@honeytreeorchard.com.