Apple Trees: History, Benefits, and Seasonal Care

Introduction

Apples are among the oldest fruits cultivated by growers. Compared to any other fruit that grows on a tree, the apple is more extensively cultivated and more useful to humans. From the distant past, apple trees have been grown for their fruit, and many people have written about them in folklore, spiritual texts, and poems. For no fewer than 2,000 years, cultivators have grown a diverse range of apples, and there are now more than 7,000 varieties cultivated worldwide.

In the United States, around 2,500 distinct kinds are available. Each variety is developed for unique food uses: while some apples are used for cooking or fresh eating, others are better suited for making cider or juice. Apples come in shades of red, green, and yellow. The Red Delicious is the most popular variety in the United States. Every year, Americans eat around 19.6 pounds of fresh apples, and the majority of apples grown in the United States for fresh eating come from orchards in Washington State. In the United States, 50% of apples grown are converted into applesauce, apple juice, or dehydrated apple products, while the remaining 50% are sold fresh.

History of the Apple Tree

Although the apple reaches its finest quality in cooler regions, it is fundamentally a fruit of the temperate zones and of very ancient origin. In Swiss lake-dwellings, small apples have been found that are completely charred yet still reveal the seed valves and the grain of the flesh. The most primitive apple trees were located near the modern city of Alma-Ata in Kazakhstan thousands of years ago, and these trees yielded sweet, tasty apples comparable to those we enjoy today. By the late 300s BC, the Greeks were growing many types of apples, and the ancient Romans also cherished and cultivated the fruit. Researchers at a Stone Age village in Switzerland found burnt remains of apples. Apple seeds and trees were later carried by European settlers to the New World, and apples were being cultivated in New England as early as 1630, according to reports from the Massachusetts Bay Company.

John McIntosh discovered the McIntosh apple — a very popular variety around the world — in 1796 in Ontario, Canada. Apples have also found a prominent place in the myths of the past. In the Swiss story of William Tell, an archer is captured and promised his freedom if he can shoot an apple off his son's head with an arrow. In the Bible, Adam and Eve are tempted by apples in the Garden of Eden. Americans have a beloved legend about an early apple farmer named John Chapman from Leominster, Massachusetts. Chapman, now widely known as "Johnny Appleseed," became famous in the 1800s when he distributed apple seeds and trees to early settlers in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Legends hold that Appleseed traveled barefoot, wearing old tattered clothes and a tin pot for a hat. Johnny Appleseed is celebrated in American folklore as an icon of the westward expansion of European settlement.

In many countries of Europe and in the Caucasus region, apples are found growing in their wild state; they also exist in lowland areas as far north as Drontheim in Norway. The natural forerunner of all cultivated apple varieties is the Crab-tree, or Wild Apple, which is native to Britain. The Crab-tree served as the rootstock onto which select varieties were grafted and then brought from Europe, mainly from France. Before the Norman Conquest, apples of some kind existed in large quantities in Britain and were possibly introduced by the Romans. Pliny wrote about twenty-two varieties, and today there are about 2,000 known kinds.

Old Saxon manuscripts contain many references to apples and cider. A separate chapter on the apple can be found in Bartholomaeus Anglicus's encyclopedia, printed at Cologne around 1470 — one of the earliest printed books to contain botanical information. Bartholomaeus writes: "Malus the Appyll tree is a tree yt bereth apples and is a grete tree in itself . . . it is more short than other trees of the wood wyth knottes and rinelyd Rynde. And makyth shadowe wythe thicke bowes and branches: and fayr with dyurs blossomes, and floures of swetnesse and Iykynge: with goode fruyte and noble. And is gracious in syght and in taste and vertuous in medecyne . . . some beryth sourysh fruyte and harde, and some ryght soure and some ryght swete, with a good savoure and mery."

The Benefits of Having Apples in Your Garden

One of the most immediate and universal reasons for enjoying apples is their taste: whether cooked or raw, children of all ages enjoy them. Apple pies, apple puddings, and apple dumplings are satisfying for all age groups and occasions. Malic acid and tartaric acid form the principal nutritional components of apples. For people who are sedentary and prone to liver disturbances, these acids play a significant role in neutralizing the acid products of gout and indigestion. There is genuine substance behind the well-known saying, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away."

The acids in apples aid in digesting the fruit itself as well as other foods consumed alongside it. Rich foods such as pork and goose have long been paired with applesauce based on popular instinct, and science has since confirmed this pairing. Another example of traditional wisdom validated by science is the old English custom of eating apple pie with cheese. Like most fruit sugars, the sugar in a sweet apple is nearly a predigested food; once consumed, it passes rapidly into the blood to supply energy and warmth. The stomach handles a ripe raw apple easily, completing its full digestion in approximately eighty-five minutes.

Unsweetened apple juice will frequently reduce stomach acidity; it converts into alkaline carbonates and thereby corrects sour fermentation. Medical authorities have claimed that unsweetened cider dissolves kidney stones, a finding reportedly supported by evidence from Normandy, where cider is the primary drink and no cases of kidney stones were encountered for forty years. Eating ripe, juicy apples at bedtime each night can relieve certain serious forms of constipation — sour apples being the most effective for this purpose. This approach is particularly helpful for people prone to biliousness. In some cases boiled apples are better tolerated than raw ones.

There is an old proverb: "To eat an apple going to bed will make the doctor beg his bread." The apple not only cleanses the teeth through its juices but is firm enough to naturally push back the gums, relieving the margins of deposits — making it an excellent natural dentifrice. An old Lincolnshire remedy for sore eyes involved applying decayed apples as a poultice, and this practice was still in use in some villages.

Regular consumption of apples is said to prolong and improve quality of life. In the old Scandinavian legend of the Edda, Iduna gave apples kept in a box to the gods to restore their youth. A French physician claimed that apple juice could kill the bacillus of typhoid fever and suggested blending suspicious drinking water with cider as a safeguard. The bark and root of the apple, peach, and plum can yield a glucoside that stimulates artificial diabetes in animals and may be used in treating it in humans. During Gerard's era, a cream for skin irregularities was made from apple pulp, swine's grease, and rosewater — an early form of pomade. For chronic diarrhea, the astringent verjuice of the crab apple, rich in tannin, is useful. The bark may be prepared as a decoction for irregular and bilious fevers. Horseradish soaked in cider is reported to help with dropsy. Swelling of the eyes, sore throat in fevers, and erysipelas can be treated by applying cooked apples locally. Boiled apples are used as laxatives, while raw apples do not consistently have the same effect.

Conclusion

An apple is a fruit whose seeds are embedded in the center of the fruit; it belongs to the Pome family, of which the rose is another notable member. Apple is the number-one snack in America, available in many colors and shapes. It is worthwhile to try one of each variety, as every apple is rich in minerals, vitamins, and fiber. The five-a-day recommendation from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is well served by an apple, which is 85% water and only 1% fat — contributing a modest 80 calories. After the harvest ends, preparation for winter begins again. Apple cultivation spans the entire year, keeping the orchard continuously busy. On close inspection, at the tip of each branch one can already see the promise of next year's crop — the bud that will become the apple eaten a year from now.