If it weren't for Peter Gideon, we might still be munching on crabapples, rather than the Haralson, Honeycrisp or SweeTango that Minnesota is known for.
In 1853, Gideon, a horticulturist, built a homestead on Lake Minnetonka, near Excelsior, and planted thousands of apple trees. Within a few years, all those non-hardy trees had succumbed to Minnesota winters, with the exception of a single Siberian crabapple.
Undaunted, Gideon bought seeds from sturdier stock from a grower in Maine. The new seed, crossed with his Siberian crabapple, resulted in a cultivar that became Minnesota's first claim to apple fame. Gideon named the fruit Wealthy, after his wife (and yes, that's an odd first name). By the turn of the century, the Wealthy apple was among the top five apples grown nationally.
And here we reach a moment almost biblical in the telling of its lineage: Wealthy joined with the Malinda apple and begat the Haralson apple, which was developed at the apple-breeding program at the University of Minnesota's Horticultural Research Center and was put on the market in 1922. The Haralson later begat the Honeygold in 1966 (the Golden Delicious had a little something to do with that, too, as one of its "parents").
Joan Donatelle tells the story — and more — in "Astonishing Apples," the next volume in the Northern Plate recipe-oriented series from the Minnesota Historical Society Press (175 pages, $17.95). Her cookbook gives a brief nod to the sweet side of apple use (with recipes for Honey Apple Crème Brûlée and an Umbrian Apple Roll, among them) and steers more toward the savory use of the fruit, in recipes such as Apple and Bacon-Stuffed French Toast, and Roasted Apples and Roots.
Donatelle, who has worked for Lunds & Byerlys for more than a decade, still loves apples after developing more than 130 recipes that feature them (99 of them found in the book).
"I'm very excited for this harvest season," she said with true enthusiasm, one apple orchard already under her belt.
Q: What's the intrigue about the apple?
