Breaking Hearts & Waging Wars- Apple
Hello and welcome back to another week of Rooted, where this week we are kicking off another ultra-mini series to celebrate the cozy vibes of fall (and creep our way into the holiday season- Autumnal Pies! We’ll be covering some of the most popular fillings here, and I’ll be whipping up a playlist and a few other goodies for you on our socials.
We’ve already covered pumpkin, so I figured this week we could dig into another fall fruit- Apples!
Apples, or malus. are probably one of the most iconic and best known fruits, characterized by their bright, fresh scented spring blooms, large, sort of knotted looking branches *especially as they get older) and of course their large fleshy fruits that can be anywhere from yellow to deep burgundy in color.
As members of the rose family, their blooms look very similar to wild roses with 5 petals and a spray of inflorescence in the center. These are eventually pollinated and form apples in the late fall.
Apples are originally native to the middle east and some regions of china, who is still the world’s largest producer of apples.
Today most of our apples LOOK very different from when we started cultivating them from Malus sieversii about 10,000 years ago, being bred for firmness, juiciness, size of fruit, color, and flavor.
These domesticated apples have been bred to prefer cooler climates with loamy soils, and prefer a pretty solid drink through summer as they put on their fruits.
Of course, like with a lot of our really popular produce, monocropping has lead apples to be very vulnerable to pest and disease, which is why we are seeing so many new varieties brewing bred with more wild apples to hopefully diversity, but this is a bit challenging due to the fact that wild apples take much longer to be able to produce fruit, and they have lost a LOT of their native habitat.
In fact- most of the apples we have today are more or less clones of one another. This is because in order for trees to produce the amount of fruit we need as early as possible, the vast majority of our fruiting apples are actually grafted.
Grafting was probably the scariest thing I learned about early on in my horticulture/botany journey, but also like the CLOSEST I ever want to get to becoming Dr. Frankenstein. To do it, you basically cut a limb off of one plant (sometime more) and attach it to a host tree with a compatible rootstock.) there is a way to cut it that makes it more stable, but basically you just kind of stick it on to the host tree with some surgery and wrap that up until the host tree accepts that new limb, and wham bam thankyou ma'am, you have a healthy tree that can produce fruit WAY faster. It’s very interesting and one of the many things I love about plants. But It is a little bit strange to know that when you go apple picking you’re basically just surrounded by botanical Frankenstein monsters.
ANYWAY- this is also why if you plant an apple seed from the grocery store, you might not get the apple you planted, if you get fruit at all.
With over 7500 unique varieties (and counting) it can get easy to be overwhelmed by just how many options there are…that’s why they have been divided into 3 main categories: Cider apples, baking apples, and eating apples.
Cider apples tend to have more tannins, and might be a bit more bitter than an eating or a baking apple. THis is important though, because without tannic acid, the fermentation process gets ... .rough. These apples have a variety of flavors, but tend to be fairly juicy and closest to wild apples. Think crab apples, golden russets, and porter's pride- all of which don’t look particularly tasty, but the good news is that they don't have to.
From there we have baking apples, which tend to be softer, smaller, and sweeter than the other two, with classic like golden delicious, breburns, and cortlands
And finally we have our eating apples- known for being large with a good crisp bite, a sweet but tart flavor, and a good amount of juice- these are your honeycrisp[s, fujis, pink ladies, jonathans, granny smiths- really all the best looking apples tend to be for eating.
And people aren’t the only ones who love an apple- everyone from greek gods, celtic fairies, and even greedy dragons have been snacking on these guys for centuries.
Starting in Greek mythology, apples were a gift to Hera from Gaia for her wedding to Zeus, and eventually golden apples were planted in the garden of life, which was protected by Hesperides, the nymphs who swore to protect them at all costs. As we have talked about before on the show, when hercules (half son of zeus) was given his 12 tasks to become a demigod and gain acceptance, he was takes with taking these bad boys, by either slaying a dragon, holding the world for atlas really quick so HE could grab an apple, or wining and dining the nymphs so they would just let him have one…either way, he completed this (the 11th) task and was eventually accepted.
Moving on to an old prussian tale, there once was a girl named Pruslea who lived with her father on an apple orchard. They grew apples that people were absolutely OBSESSED with- truly the best around. So good in fact, that they attracted attention from more than just people… they were constantly having to fight off deer, rabbits, rats, wasps- oh and that’s right- super greedy dragons who were honestly like super rude and munching acres of fruit
Try as he might, purslea’s dad never could fully fend off the dragons. Year after year they came to the orchard, seemingly hungrier than before. Tragically, one season Prusela’s father fell ill, and was no match for the big bad dragon who had decided the orchard should be his. Devastated by the loss of her father, and fearful for her future, Pruslea decided to fight the dragon herself. The dragon see’s her coming , but doesnt take her threats seriously- leaving our dear girl more than enough room to get close, act quickly, and hop off his head in one swift flick of the wrist.
Speaking of badass ladies, the last tale I want to tell you today is the story of a fairy queen looking for a shot at love.
According to legend, the fairy queen kind of had everything- she was beautiful, powerful, and well liked by her people…but, she was lonely. Fairy men just weren’t her type, and she was starting to think she might never know true love…..enter the absolutely hottie from the village across the forest. See, our girl had watched him for a LONG time, and had a bit of a crush on the lad, so when he found himself knocked out cold in the forest, the fairy queen rushed to lend him a hand- offering him a bite of her golden apple so that he could, you know- not die….but what she failed to mention was that he would need a steady stream of those bad boys to stay alive…. A supply she was more than happy to share on one condition- he would marry her and live with her forever…and is that kind of a trap and maybe not the BEST way to kick off a marriage- SURE. but you know what- we support women’s rights AND wrongs on this channel, so we’re going to let her have it.
Now, for those of you wondering about Adam and eve- of COURSE that is an apple and of course that has led to all kinds of symbolism- but because this episode is so long, I decided to stick to the stories I didn’t think you’d all know.
BUT- I did want to highlight that christianity isn't the ONLY religion to make use of apples in symbolism. Taking it back to the vikings, apples were used across a variety of nordic traditions to symbolize the tree of life, and often given as gifts to VIPs.
In the Jewish Faith, apples dipped in honey are eaten during rosh a shana to symbolize a sweet new year.
But apples aren’t just commonplace in fictional stories and symbolism, they are also woven into some VERY important real life stories from across history.
Okay…so we are kind of starting off with a blurred line at the Trojan war, which is said to have started because Eris, the goddess of discord, was PISSED that she was not invited to a wedding. So, she did what any modern day reality tv star would do- she threw an apple into the crowd of goddesses inscribed with the words “to the fairest” KNOWING it would start a MASSIVE brawl and ruin the big day….and well, she was right.
To get the fighting to end, Paris (somehow the chosen mediator) stated that athena was the prettiest- though it was later revealed that he only said that because she promised she would make this really pretty girl named helen (who just so happened to live in TROY) fall in love with him….and well- that casually kicked off a 10 year siege over her.
BUT in REAL real history, apples were of course the fruit of choice for Sir Issac Newton to conduct his experiments with, giving us the literal laws of gravity- thanks apples!
In another fact that seems like it should be fiction- We are finally to the part where I tell you all about johnny appleseed- a real life gardener and horticulturist who I often get confused with paul bunyan and davy crockett….but enough about ME- JOhnny appleseed is kind of credited with being the man to spread apples across the united states.
So- for some context- johnny appleseed was born John Chapman to a family in massachusetts, and as he was growing up in and among orchards, he noticed that most if not all of the trees in there were grafted…which was cool and all, but it meant that the only way to have sustainable apples was to basically just keep making clones of mutant trees- and he figured that could NOT be good long term…so, he set about cultivating more of the original apples here, pointing out that they were good for not just food, but also for wind break in areas further out west (really the midwest)...and the thing was, these apples were actually pretty good for lords of things, so, johnny started taking his apple growing show on the road, gifting appleseeds to anyone who wanted them, and planting acres and acres of them by himself on land he was purchasing, giving us a TON of orchards and fruit trees that ultimately helped to stabilize apple populations here in the US, and gave rise to the hybridization we see today out of states like MN, WA, And or.- thanks Johnny! He did also spread the word of his own church, but I’ll leave that as a rabbit hole for YOU to go down.
Moving on to other things you have said about apples but maybe don’t know what- why do we say “an apple a day keeps the doctor away?”
THe short answer is that apples contain a TON of really great phytochemicals that help us to be generally healthy, plus they are a great source of carbs and fiber, which is really important for keeping us (and our bowels) working properly.
The less short answer is that apples specifically contain high amounts of quercetin, a flavonoid that acts as an antioxidant by scavenging free radicals in the body and getting rid of them before they cause cell death, build up to lead to cancer, etc.
It also has been shown in some isolated studies to prevent the body from producing histamines, making apples potentially useful for treatment of allergies and asthma, though we don’t have a ton of research to really say for certain how that would work.
Back to the old “doctor away” adage, the main idea here is that eating healthy foods, even those as inexpensive and readily available as apples, can keep your body and brain working well, helping you to avoid needing a doctor. And while today we know health is about so much more than JUST eating your fruits and veggies, they are still an important part of fueling our bodies well.
In fact, apples used to be even MORE important to the diets of those living in Europe (especially places like Ireland and England) due to their use in cider. Back then, water was often daily unsafe to drink, and fermenting apples was a great way to preserve and make use of the crops, so EVERYONE was drinking it- even children- although some reports said it was diluted for them, so here is hoping…
Anyway, of course, cider is still a VERY popular drink across the world, but did you know it only really got that way because of Julias Caesar? Thats right, we all hate him, but we do have to give him credit for Girl Dinner. In 55 BCE, Our boy wrote in his diary about how much he LOVED the crab apple cider he was drinking- so much so that he proceeded to bring the cider AND the trees with him across the globe.
By the time the trees made it to what is now the United states, people had developed all kinds of different methods, and it was largely considered a staple crop to the colonists.
It stayed that way for a VERY long time, so much so that even today we still have a lot of those orchards and the cider making equipment- horse powered grinding mills, hairy draining mats- really the whole nine….but all of that changed as immigrants from places more accustomed to wheat- and our favorite beverage law- the bavarian purity act of 1812- brought beer over as the new water replacement.
This resulted in a HARD pivot over to grain production- especially in the midwest, which meant people basically abandoned their apple dreams. Luckily though, it was so popular in so many places that we didn’t ever fully lose it. And with the rise of craft beer and super fancy wines, we have also seen a resurgence in cider, giving us all kind of different types that vary by method, region, and even on if the apples freeze before harvest or not (this is called ice cider, and is basically the same as ice wine, which is more expensive because the fruit freezes outside before harvest, concentrating the sugars and resulting in a sweeter product without any loss of tannins.
Those tannins are important, as it’s what allows cider to ferment and get a little bubbly without giving us botulism. So even though they give me migraines sometimes, I stay grateful for tannins.
And I’m not alone- in fact, in early England there was a tradition known as wassailing, which is basically where people celebrated and gave thanks for that year's cider apple harvest. This event also brought us apple bobbing, as it was not just a good way to check the apples for pests, but also to keep children entertained at fall festivals for years to come.
Outside of cider, apples have long been used as a thickening agent and in savory dishes as a way to add heartiness and a touch of sweetness. The thickening is due to the fact that apples naturally contain pectin, which is literally what we use to thicken jams and jellies.
Outside of their culinary contributions, apple bark can sometimes be used commercially in yellow dye, and apple wood is very useful in both smoking meat AND just as firewood, as it produces a lot of heat when burned- and I think it smells nice, which is a solid bonus.
Now, of course with something as iconic as apples you KNPW we have to talk pop culture really quickly- and hopefully answer some of your lingering questions.
For starters, let’s take a look at the computer company Apple. I went into this assuming all of the articles I was reading were pulling made up stuff off of reddit BUT it turns out that the inspiration for Steve Job’s to name his company apple was just…that he liked them. In fact, he explained that he was on a mostly fruit diet at the time, ands when he thought about his company, he felt like apple was the right fit. Later he explained that the bite taken out of it in the logo was about as deep, explaining that without out it, the logo looked like a general fruit, so they really needed the bite to make it more obvious it was an apple…and you know what- it clearly worked better than pepsi’s multi-million dollar way-too-complicated redesign that looks the same, so good for him.
Moving on to another phrase that’s pretty common here in the United states- the Big Apple. Now, this NYC nickname originated in the 1920’s from the coolesrt cats around- old school jazz musicians- who tended to call prize money “Apples”...at the time, NYC was kind of a hub for jazz, with a TON of competitions with BIG prizes, so they called the city the big apple and the rest is history.
Now- because this is MY podcast we simply HAVE to talk about it- Apples in twilight. I KN OW not the most groundbreaking use of them as a forbidden fruit, but I simply cannot NOT talk about that apple toss- especially now that Stephaine meyer is making an animated version. Also- be be clear, Stephanie is a practicing mormon, which does explain a lot of the nods to purity culture and traditionally christian symbolism.
But in a complete twist, and to end on a more iconic note, Charlie xcx ALSO has a nod to the forbidden fruit and “apple doesn't fall far from the tree” but in the opposite way, kind of standing against it but in a fun pop way in her most recent album “brat” with her hit song (and very popular dance) taking the internet by storm this summer.
While I won’t be doing viral dances anytime soon, consider this your reminder to check us out on social where I share plant facts, behind the scenes looks at some of my plant adventures, herbal recipes, and a lot of cringy memes.
With that, I’ll leave you for this week, but I’ll be back next week to round out our mini pie baking series. See you then!
Sources:
https://www.honeybeewild.com/journal/apple
https://www.asec.purdue.edu/apple_genomics/folklore.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Appleseed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cider_apple
https://enchantedlivingmagazine.com/apple-folklore-fairy-tales-myth-and-magic/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC442131/
https://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/apples-in-folklore-and-fairy-tales
https://applesandpeople.org.uk/stories/
https://hvmag.com/things-to-do/5-moments-when-apples-were-a-big-deal-in-pop-culture/
https://www.macworld.com/article/673923/why-is-apple-called-apple.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cider
https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/features/cider-history-origins
https://www.ams.usda.gov/grades-standards/apple-grades-standards
https://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/fvwaplproc.pdf
