Minnesota Apple Origins: Peter Gideon and the Wealthy Apple
In Minnesota, the second it starts to look like fall, it is time for APPLE ORCHARDS!!!!!!
But despite our apple obsession, not a single variety of apple is native to Minnesota. That’s right, only crabapples grew in Minnesota until one man changed all that.
Peter Gideon
On the shores of Lake Minnetonka, Peter Gideon tried for 14 years to get ANY variety of apple to grow - but cold Minnesota winters were just not letting that happen. Until in 1868, a variety of seed that he got from Maine finally sprouted. He grafted that tiny sapling onto a local variety of crabapple and he named his new variety the “Wealthy” apple. Not because he thought it would make him rich, but because that was his wife’s name.
In fact, Gideon never made ANY money from the Wealthy apple - even though it quickly became the most popular variety of apple grown in the upper midwest and went on to help create other apple varieties like the Haralson apple - named for Charles Haralson, who was superintendent of the University of Minnesota Fruit Breeding Farm in the 1920s.
Thanks to Peter Gideon, Minnesota apple growers now grow about $14 million dollars worth of apples each year.
And WE get to enjoy them!
