Carol Fisher-Linn
Think of apples and Johnny Appleseed comes to mind. Yes, he was a real guy. His true name was John Chapman; he hailed from Leominster, Massachusetts. Incidentally, Pilgrims planted the first U.S. apple trees in the Massachusetts Bay Colony as far back as the 1600’s, so little Johnny grew up in a land of apples. He planted his first apple tree nurseries in the Allegheny Valley in Pennsylvania about 1798 and then began traveling west through Ohio, planting as he went. What you may not know is he was actually investing while wearing that silly pot on his head. You see, back then land could be claimed if you created a permanent homestead, and one of the ways to do that was to plant 50 trees to start an orchard. Chapman planted trees, and then later would sell “his” orchard land to people.
The apple tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, Malus sieversii, is still found today. BTW: There actually is a fear of apples called Malusdomesticaphobia. This phobia gets its name from the scientific name of apples, which is Malus domestica in the Rose family – Rosaceae (Rose? Who knew?). Googling apple fear stories will entertain you on a rainy day.
A stone tablet found in Mesopotamia, dating back to 1500 B.C., narrates the story of an Apple orchard in exchange of a herd of sheep. But history tells us that apples have been grown for thousands of years in Asia and Europe. The apple is thought to have been domesticated 4,000–10,000 years ago in the Tian Shan mountains, and then to have travelled along the Silk Road to Europe, with hybridization and introgression of wild crabapples from Siberia, the Caucasus, and Europe. They were then brought to North America by European colonists.
How far back do apples go? Well, there’s always the story of Eve … Or Odysseus who struggled to get home from the Trojan Wars to the apple tree garden he loved as a child. We’ve grown up hearing the adage, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” but further back in history The Arabian Nights talks about a magic apple able to cure all diseases. There’s some truth to that. Thanks to their high levels of boron, apples can help improve your memory, mental alertness, and electrical activity of the brain. Apples contain 0 grams of fat or sodium and have no cholesterol. At 4 grams per average size apple, they are an excellent source of fiber. Most of the antioxidants found in apples, including quercetin, are in the skin. If you want to learn more about the apple in literature, go to interestingliterature.com and look for the National Geographic article “The Curious Symbolism of Apples in Literature and Myth” 7/22/14.
Back in the 1800’s when Ellicottville was being settled, some of the hilly areas did not lend themselves to farming, so orchards were planted for commerce. There are many old, gone-wild apple trees lining my road, Bryant Hill Road, and surely there are more in the area. A Google search in your vicinity will point you toward great apple-picking spots near both of our Great Lakes. September is the best time to think about picking for your winter cold storage. (Apples will ripen six to ten times faster at room temperature than if they are refrigerated.) If you choose not to pick your own, Pumpkinville in Great Valley opens for the 2022 season on September 17 (through October 31). They offer a HUGE selection (bins and bins) of apples, offering you an opportunity to try some you have not in the past. Now, there are more than 2,500 varieties of apples grown in the United States, and they come in all shades of red, green and yellow. Pumpkinville’s selection is not that large, but trust me, you will have trouble deciding which you want to take home.
They also crush apples on site for cider (it takes about 36 apples to create one gallon of apple cider) which you can buy by the glass or jug to take home to enjoy with a slice of Pumpkinville home-baked apple pies (and others) for the perfect ending to a picnic or family dinner. Here’s a final trivia fact: The science of apple growing is called pomology.