From the Living Museum
Keepsake
- Origin
- University of Minnesota; introduced 1978 (MN 1593; MN 447 × Northern Spy)
- Era
- Introduced 1978
- Type / use
- Dessert · Fresh eating
History & Stories
Parent of Honeycrisp. Very crisp, juicy, sweet-tart fruit with outstanding storage life. Unique as both a high-quality cold-hardy dessert apple in its own right and as the key parent that made Honeycrisp possible.
Folklore & Name
University of Minnesota release (1978) 1. Parent of Honeycrisp. Name reflects its outstanding keeping quality. Important cold-hardy dessert apple in its own right.
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
Keepsake was introduced by the University of Minnesota in 1978 as selection MN 1593. Its recorded parents are MN 447 and Northern Spy, and the university describes it as a "winter, long storage life" apple 1. Its greatest fame came later: DNA studies identified Keepsake as one parent of Honeycrisp 2.
The competing accounts
- University of Minnesota cultivar table 1: introduced in 1978 as MN 1593 (MN 447 × Northern Spy).
- A release year of 1979 also appears in some lists; we found no source for it.
Most likely (our judgment, not a certainty): 1978, the date in the university's own table.
What we think: stories & traditions
The hidden parent. For years Honeycrisp's pedigree was recorded wrongly. The 2017 study that sorted it out first "verified" Keepsake as one parent, using DNA markers 2. So a hard, long-keeping winter apple that never became a supermarket star turned out to be the parent of one of the most popular apples in North America.
Well named. The name suits the university's own description of it as a winter apple with a "long storage life" 1. We haven't found who chose the name or when the original cross was made.
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., "Elucidation of the 'Honeycrisp' pedigree through haplotype analysis...," Horticulture Research 4: 17003 (2017). www.nature.com/articles/hortres20173
Curious about Keepsake?
Email us at drgoss@honeytreeorchard.com.