More Facts 2
AN APPLE A DAY KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY
One of the most popular quotations of the 19th Century was "An apple a day keeps
the doctor away. Before the 20th century there was no food pyramid or someone to
announce the importance of five servings of fruits and vegetables every day.
People simply recognized the healthy attributes of the apple. Some people were
also well aware of the apple's relationship to the history of the world.
Author-naturalist Henry David Thoreau wrote, "It is remarkable how closely the
history of the apple tree is connected with that of man."
History
In looking at the history of the apple, one must pay tribute to and recognize
the role of the inventive horticulturists of the Roman era. Were it not for
them, juicy, sweet apples would not be in those brown bag lunches today. There
would be no apple pie, no apple cobbler, or apple fritters, apple cider, or even
apple butter. Simply expressed, there would be no plump, juicy apples.
The wild apple of ancient Asia, malus pumila var mitris, would never have made
it to the modern table in its uncultivated form. The wild trees produced
hundreds of tiny fruits that were sour and consisted mostly of numerous, small,
dark brown seeds and core, hardly a fruit that anyone would anticipate eating.
The wild apple of Europe, the main ancestor of the domestic apple, is classified
as malus sylvestris.
Though some historians are in dispute over exactly who first cultivated the wild
apple, many believe it was the Romans who discovered they could cultivate these
wild apples into fleshy, sweet, and juicy fruits. Some historians report the
apple's origins were rooted in Southwestern Asia, just south of the Caucasus
Mountains between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Others note that apple
seeds found in Anatolia were carbon dated 6500 BCE. Archeologists even found a
fossilized imprint of an apple seed from the Neolithic period in England.
With the apple's exact origin in question, another dilemma arises. Did Eve
really bite into an apple that she plucked off the forbidden tree of knowledge
of good and evil in the Garden of Eden? No specific name is given to the fruit
she tasted from that tree, though apples are mentioned later in the Bible. Some
historians believe Eve's fruit of temptation might have been a pomegranate or
possibly even a quince.
In the 13th century BCE, Ramses II ordered cultivated varieties of apples
planted in the Nile delta. In Attica, Greece, apples were being grown in a very
limited quantity during the 7th century BCE. Since they were so expensive, it
was decreed that a bridal couple would have to share one apple on their wedding
night.
Pliny the Elder, a Roman statesman, circa 23 CE, described 37 different
varieties of cultivated apples in his Historia naturalis. By the first century
CE apples were being cultivated in every region throughout the Rhine Valley.
Apple cultivation was gathering momentum. By the year 1640, horticulturist
Parkinson noted 60 varieties, by 1669 the count was up to 92 varieties, and by
1866 Downing's Fruits notes 643 different cultivars.
When the early explorers returned from their travels and introduced new fruits
and vegetables into Europe, the Europeans often didn't know what to call them.
To them, the name "apple" symbolized all fruits and was at one time bestowed
upon melons, avocados, cashews, cherimoyas, dates, eggplants, lemons, oranges,
peaches, pineapples, pine nuts, pomegranates, potatoes, quinces, and tomatoes.
Poet Robert Frost found this rather amusing and penned this poem:
The rose is a rose,
And was always a rose.
But the theory now goes
That the apple's a rose.
Naming the Apple
Our present day Lady Apple, whose original name was Api after the Etruscan who
developed it, was originally grown in the gardens of Louis XIII. Later, Louis
XIV considered it the only apple variety worthy of being served. In France it is
still known as pomme d'Api. During Colonial days in the United States the Lady
Apple was a special Christmas-time treat.
Api's green thumb efforts on behalf of the apple were followed by others such as
the monks during the Middle Ages, Louis XIV of France, and New York's first
governor Peter Stuyvesant. In 1860 an Iowa apple farmer named Hesse Hiatt came
upon a unique apple tree in his orchard, a tree that he hadn't planted. When the
fruit was harvested, he marveled at its unusual appearance and superb flavor. It
turned out to be the Golden Delicious that Mr. Hiatt then cultivated and
introduced to the whole world.
It was the Colonists who brought the apple with them to America in the form of
seeds, often called pips. As Henry David Thoreau wrote, ". . . when man
migrates, he carries with him not only his birds, quadrupeds, insects,
vegetables, and his very sward, but his orchard also." Early in 1629 the Boston
Bay Company placed an order for apple seeds from England. A few years later, in
1635, a record five-hundred hogsheads of apple cider was produced by Mr. Wolcott
of Connecticut. That's an impressive lot of apple cider! A hogshead is a barrel
or cask that holds between 63 and 140 gallons.
In the United States, Michigan, Washington, and New York have become the
commercial centers of apple production, with the Pacific Northwest leading the
pack, producing more than 35 million bushels a year. Apples grown in Washington
state came to the west from the East Coast, and originally from England.
No apple history would be complete without a mention of America's beloved Johnny
Appleseed. As the tale goes, he loved apples so much that he decided to travel
the country barefoot in his overalls with his pockets filled with apple seeds
and another bag of apple seeds slung over his shoulder. The legend says that as
he traveled the countryside, he tossed these seeds randomly to create a country
filled with apple trees. Johnny Appleseed truly did exist. His real name was
John Chapman, born in Massachusetts in 1774. He did indeed love apples, learned
about their cultivation, and started many apple nurseries that stretched from
the Allegheny River in the East as far west as Ohio. His dedication to apple
cultivation earned him his legendary nickname, Johnny Appleseed.
What makes a truly tasty apple? The flavor is a magical blend of tartness,
sweetness, bitterness, and aroma that awakens the senses. The sweetness, 9% to
12% of the fruit, comes from sucrose and fructose, two forms of natural sugar.
The acid content consists of 90% malic acid and10% citric acid. The malic acid
content can make up 0.4% to 1% of the fruit. The astringent bite we taste in an
apple emanates from tannins averaging 0.2% of the fruit. The familiar aroma is a
mysterious blend of 250 trace chemicals contained in the fruit, such as volatile
esters, alcohols, and aldehydes.
Apple trees are valued not only for their delicious fruits, but for their wood
that is used for making mallet heads and golf clubs. Pieces of apple wood add
excellent flavor for smoking foods, and the split wood make ideal fire logs.
Cultivation
The apple derives its name from the Latin pomum, meaning fruit in English, and
is classified as a pome, a fruit that has many tiny seeds within a core at the
center. They belong to the pome group as opposed to the stone group, referring
to the type of seeds contained in the fruit.
What the Roman horticulturists accomplished over time was to establish a number
of consistent varieties. By the 6th century BCE, they were boasting 7 different
kinds of apples. As first described in De Agricultura by Cato the Elder, a 2nd
century Roman statesman, they began by taking cuttings called "scions" from a
tree that had desirable qualities and grafting these onto sturdy rootstocks.
Branches then developed that produced these apples of good quality.
The Romans learned that in order to grow consistent varieties of apples, they
must be cultivated by this method or they would revert back to one of the
original parents, just as any hybrid fruit or vegetable would do. Horticulturist
Behr states, "Without the techniques of grafting (or of rooting a branch), each
tree in the world would constitute its own variety, distinct from every other."
Our domestic apples, malus domestica, are a hybrid combination of malus pumila,
malus sylvestris, and malus mitis.
An orchard of apple trees is a visual delight. The tree trunks and branches have
a tendency to become twisted and distorted making them an appealing artistic
composition. The leaves can either be smooth or soft and fuzzy. In the spring,
when the trees burst into blossom, the clusters of highly fragrant flowers may
be pink, pure white, or red-tinged. The flowers of the majority of varieties
must be fertilized from the pollen of other apple varieties.
The temperate zones of Europe, Asia, and North America are ideal for apple
growing where the trees can rest during a cold, dormant period of about two
months to recover from the work of producing an abundant crop. In more recent
years, new varieties of apples have been developed that produce well in warmer
climates. Commercially grown apples, however, come from the cooler countries
like Russia, China, Germany, England, France, and the Northern United States.
Apples are one of the most popular fruits in the world. At present there are at
least 7,500 different varieties that vary in shape, color, texture, firmness,
crispness, acidity, juiciness, sweetness, nutritional value, and harvesting
period.
Folklore
Many foods have been thought to possess magical qualities and even aphrodisiac
powers. The apple's projected powers could fill a bushel of folklore. An ancient
Greek who wanted to propose to a woman would only have to toss her an apple. If
she caught it, he knew she had accepted his offer.
In Germany, during medieval times a man who ate an apple that was steeped in the
perspiration of the woman he loved was very likely to succeed in the
relationship.
Here's a simple, cost effective, and long-forgotten fertility rite to share with
those desirous of conceiving a healthy apple harvest. Villagers of Medieval
England would select the largest apple tree in the orchard, and hang
cider-soaked pieces of toast on its branches to attract robins. To those
villagers, robins were considered the good spirits of the tree. Then, to drive
away the evil spirits, the people would gather throughout the orchard and fire
many blasts from their shotguns. They followed this ritual by pouring cider over
the tree's roots and tipped a few cups themselves. Merriment followed with
dancing around the tree with their arms linked as they chanted ancient charms.
Even today some highly superstitious people believe this practice is necessary
to insure a good crop of apples.
Some unique and curious customs have faded into obscurity. Long ago, in
Cumberland, England, people would suspend apples from strings over the hearth.
When the apples were fully roasted, they fell into a bowl of spiced, mulled wine
that was waiting for them beneath. This practice was actually the precursor to
the oven-baked apple of today.
Throughout history apples symbolized luxury, pleasure, love, fertility, and even
jealousy. Greek mythology recounts this tale: from the garden of the Hesperides,
golden apples were given to Hera as a wedding gift at her marriage to Zeus.
Modern Greek scholars believe that the golden apples of the Hesperides were
actually oranges or lemons.
It is told that the prophet Mohammed inhaled the fragrance of an apple brought
to him by an angel just before his last breath of life.
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