Juicy Apple Stories

Apples and Health
Apple History
Apples in Religion
Apples in Mythology
Apples, Love and Marriage
Apples in America
References

Apples and Health

• The healthful image of apples probably finds its source in Greek myths, some of which have foundations as far back as the New Stone Age, in which apples are a token of knowledge and immortality. In one myth, Hercules achieves immortality by eating a sacred apple before submitting to his ritual slaughter. In other myths, apples are associated with the healing gods Apollo, Hercules and Dionysus.

• The custom of serving fresh fruit, particularly apples, at the end of a meal arose because of digestive qualities attributed to them by such early medical notables as Hippocrates and Galen, the latter a second-century Roman physician.

• The medieval physician's bible, the Salerno medical school's Prescription for Health, taught therapeutic applications of cooking apples for disturbances of the bowels, lungs and nervous system, to mention just a few.

• Apple juice was one of the earliest prescribed antidepressants.

• Apples' curative powers were documented by self-proclaimed master surgeon John Gerarde in 1597. Apples were used as treatments for ailments from "a hot stomacke" and inflammations of all types, and as a beauty therapy.

Apple History

• Apples have existed for the length of recorded history, believed to have originated in the Caucasus, a mountainous area between what is now the Black and Caspian Seas. The people of that region are commonly considered the ancestors of most of the peoples of modern Europe, Persia, Afghan and India – apparently taking apples along with them.

• Apples' fortunes waxed and waned throughout history. Cultivation and enjoyment of apples was an essential part of civilized life during the Persian Empire, grown as much for their aesthetic pleasures as for good food. The Greeks acquired the Persian affinity for apples when they assumed dominance in the third century B.C. Later the food customs and horticultural skills acquired from the Persians and Greeks migrated with the epicurean Romans westward into Europe, rising to the level of both art and science.

• As the Roman Empire declined, however, so did apple growing for a time. In fact, many of the varieties and techniques would have been lost had it not been for the monastic orcharding traditions of the Christian church through the twelfth century. In the East, fruit growing was saved and actually expanded by the rise of Islam, the tenets of which encouraged botany.

• Apple growing, for both food and spectacle, arose again in fifteenth-century Renaissance Italy. Contributing to this revival was the advent of cooking with sugar, and a decline of earlier religious concerns. France and England followed suit, and fruit remained king in Europe well into the 1800s.

• European settlers of the Americas brought with them their English customs and favorite fruits, much favored over the native crab apple.

• The Lady apple, a variety still grown today, is believed to be one of the oldest varieties on record, documented as far back as the first century A.D. (Wynne)

• The oldest apple recipe on record, for Diced Pork and Matian Apples, comes from De Re Coquinaria ("On Cookery"), dating from the third century and attributed to a gourmand named Apicius, who lived two centuries before.

• The story that Newton discovered the law of gravity after watching an apple fall from a tree is probably backwards, thought to evolve from his having used the apple's fall to illustrate the pull of gravity.

Apples in Religion

• Although the fruit is not actually named or described in the Bible, apples are commonly regarded as the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. This smudge on the apple's reputation may be undeserving, however, as archeological evidence argues that the apple was unknown in the Middle East at the time the Book of Genesis was written. The poet John Milton might have first named the apple is the biblical fruit of the Garden of Eden in Paradise Lost.

• During the Jewish celebration of Rosh Hashanah, apple slices are dipping in honey and eaten in hopes for a sweet new year. A traditional food of Passover is Haroset, a mixture of apple, nuts, win and spices, representing the bricks and mortar the Children of Israel were forced to use to build for their captors during their captivity in Egypt.

Apples in Mythology

• The apple appears throughout mythology as a symbol of desire and temptation. This may have its roots in stories about Aphrodite, goddess of love and marriage, who was presented in several occasions in art holding an apple. The myth of Atalanta further contributes to this idea. The fleet-footed maiden, told by an oracle that she would die if she wed, refused to marry unless the suiter could beat her in a foot race. Hippomenes bested Atalanta with the help of Aphrodite, who provided him with three golden apples. Stopping to collect the baubles lobbed in her path each time she took the lead cost Atalanta her maidenhood.

• The Greek goddess of discord, Eris, started the Trojan War with an apple. Miffed at having not been invited to a wedding, she tossed among the guests a golden apple enscribed "To the fairest." To put an end to the squabbling among their goddesses who each felt deserving of the apple, the mortal Paris chose Aphrodite the winner of what was probably the first beauty contest. Rejected, Hera and Athena wreaked havoc on Paris and his family, eventually leading to the Trojan War.

• The apple also appears as a symbol of the sun's life-giving warmth in many cultures' legends. Apple trees were sacred to the sun god Apollo; in fact, the name Apollo comes from the same root as the modern English word apple. The Celts revered the then-unknown Britain as a happy kingdom of the sun called the Isle of Apples, or Avalon, and it was here than King Arthur supposedly went to spend eternity.

Apples, Love and Marriage

• The apple also appears as a symbol of love and fertility, even eroticism. By early Greek history, the apple figured in courtship as well as the rites and customs of marriage. For example, the happy couple in the seventh century B.C. might share an apple as a symbol of their marriage and hopes for a fruitful union.

• The modern tradition of tossing rice at the happy couple evolved from an ancient practice of throwing apples at weddings – likely to the relief of the newlyweds.

• There are a number of traditions involving apple seeds as predictors of marriage that we would declare downright silly today.

• The game of apple-bobbing began as a Celtic New Year's tradition for trying to determine one's future spouse.

• An Irish and Scottish custom prescribed throwing an apple peel over one's shoulder, which would form the initial of your lover's name.

Apples in America

• Only sour crab apple trees were native to America, until European settlers arrived and brought with them their English customs and favorite fruits. Native Americans appropriated what they liked, cultivating apples extensively.

• Americans' fondness for seedling orchards – that is, orchards grown from seeds rather than propogation by grafting – resulted in many hundreds of new varieties more suited to the native environment. By the turn of the nineteenth century, most varieties offered by professional nurseries were native to America. Professional nurseyman Andrew Jackson Downing recorded 600 varieties in his tome published in 1859.

• The first American orchard was planted around 1625 by William Blackstone on Boston's Beacon Hill. The first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, William Endicott, was a distinquished orchardist. Endicott's account book noted his children had set fire to part of his operation, destroying 500 trees, a very considerable operation at that time in history. Well-known American apple orchardists include George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

• The first American to orbit the Earth, astronaut John Glenn, carried pureed applesauce in squeezable tubes on his initial space flight. Ham with applesauce was served to Gemini astronauts.

References:
Aresty, E. American Heritage Cookbook and Illustrated History of American Eating and Drinking. 1964. American Heritage, New York, N.Y.

Martin, Alice A. All About Apples. 1976. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Mass. ISBN 0-395-20724-X.

Morgan, Joan and Richards, Alison. The Book of Apples. 1993. Ebury Press Limited, London, England. ISBN 0-09-177759-3.

Wynne, Peter. Apples: History, Folklore, Horticulture and Gastronomy. 1975. Hawthorn Books, New York, N.Y. ISBN 0-8015-0340-X

Reed, Mary. Fruits & Nuts in Symbolism and Celebration. 1992. Resource Publications Inc., San Jose, Calif. ISBN 0-89390-252-7.