The Big Switch to Honeycrisp Apples!

I've ate Gala Apples for as long as I can remember. I always have a quart freezer bag full of sliced Apples in the frig. It seemed good quality Gala's were becoming more difficult to find so I've been trying other Apples. So after trying others I've made the switch to Honeycrisp Apples!I love the texture and sweetness of them. I've got a bag of them sliced up in the frig as I write this. I left a little history on both Apples below.


Honeycrisp Apples

Honeycrisp Apple

Honeycrisp (Malus domestica 'Honeycrisp') is an apple cultivar developed at the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station's Horticultural Research Center at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Designated in 1960 as the MN 1711, and released in 1991, the Honeycrisp, once slated to be discarded, has rapidly become a prized commercial commodity, as its sweetness, firmness, and tartness make it an ideal apple for eating raw. The Honeycrisp also retains its pigment well and boasts a relatively long shelf life when stored in cool, dry conditions.
U.S. Plant Patent 7197 and Report 225-1992 (AD-MR-5877-B) from the Horticultural Research Center indicate that the Honeycrisp is a hybrid of the apple cultivars Macoun and Honeygold. However, genetic fingerprinting conducted by a group of researchers in 2004, which included those who were later attributed on the patent, determined that neither of these cultivars is a parent of the Honeycrisp, but that the Keepsake (another apple developed by the same University of Minnesota crossbreeding program) is one of the parents. The other parent has not been identified, but it might be a numbered selection that could have been discarded since. According to the US Patent office, the Patent was filed November 7, 1988. As a result, the patent has now expired.
For the sake of commercial production, Honeycrisp apple trees are not self-fruitful, as trees grown from the seeds of Honeycrisp apples will be hybrids of Honeycrisp and the pollinator.
In 2006, Andersen Elementary School in Bayport petitioned for the Minnesota state legislature to make the Honeycrisp apple the state fruit; the bill was passed in May 2006.
As a result of the Honeycrisp apple's growing popularity, the government of Nova Scotia has encouraged its local orchards to increase their supplies through the Honeycrisp Orchard Renewal Program. From 2005 until 2010, apple producers in Nova Scotia could replace older apple trees with Honeycrisp trees at a subsidized rate. Many orchards in the Annapolis Valley on the Bay of Fundy have mature trees and plentiful supplies of Honeycrisps throughout the harvest season. Apple growers in New Zealand's South Island have begun growing Honeycrisp to supply consumers during the US off-season.[5] The first batch of New Zealand-grown Honeycrisp cultivars being introduced to the North American market have been branded using the "HoneyCrunch" registered trademark.


Gala Apples

Gala is a clonally propagated apple with a mild and sweet flavor. Gala apples ranked at number 2 in 2006 on the US Apple Association's list of most popular apples, after Red Delicious and before Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, and Fuji (in order).

Gala apples are small and are usually red with a portion being greenish or yellow-green, vertically striped. Gala apples are fairly resistant to bruising and are sweet, grainy, with a mild flavor and a thinner skin than most apples. Quality indices include firmness, crispness, and sweetness.

The first Gala apple tree was one of many seedlings resulting from a cross between a Golden Delicious and a Kidd's Orange Red planted in New Zealand in the 1930s by orchardist J.H. Kidd. Donald W. McKenzie, an employee of Stark Bros Nursery, obtained a US plant patent for the cultivar on October 15, 1974. The variety is also an increasingly popular option for UK top fruit farmers. It is a relatively new introduction to the UK, first planted in commercial volumes during the 1980s. The variety now represents about 20% of the total volume of the commercial production of eating apples grown in the UK, often replacing Cox's Orange Pippin.