Food: Celebrate Apples on October 14

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Celebrate Apples on October 14
Saturday, October 07, 2006

By Karen Melchers

I like apples any time of the year but it seems to me that in the autumn apples just taste better. Like the weather, they're fresh, crisp, and seem to embody all that autumn is. They're bright, beautiful, crunchy, and they smell good too. What's not to like? You can eat them raw, add them to other foods, squeeze them for the juice, cook them down for applesauce, or make the all-American, most mentioned and requested dessert: apple pie. Apples are versatile, tasty, nutritious, and come in a many varieties and for us, here in Maine, are an agricultural and economic staple.

But don't just take my word for it. The Maine State Pomological Society, a non-profit incorporated in 1873, is an organization of apple orchard owners throughout the state dedicated to celebrating the Maine apple and strengthening the state's apple industry. Part of their plan includes the upcoming Great Maine Apple Day, Saturday, October 14. Visiting the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association's Common Exhibition Hall in Unity between 10 am and 3 pm can help you identify the apples that grow on your property. You can also taste-test apples, enter a pie-baking contest, attend workshops on making apple wine, pressing apples for cider, and pruning apple trees. It's a perfect way to spend an autumn afternoon.

Apples are grown in all 50 states, but I admit to a bias in favor of Maine's 350 apple varieties. I love driving through the countryside in September and seeing those PYO (pick your own) signs going up at small orchards. Cool nights are what make apples "blush" so it's a good thing when a blanket becomes necessary for a cozy night's sleep. Supermarkets feature "native" apples but the best way to celebrate the season, it seems to me, is by picking your own apples or at least visiting one of the many stands along the road.

The trip is as worthwhile for Mainers as it is for "leaf peepers." Everyone sees the astoundingly beautiful foliage and, depending on which apple stand is visited some may even get to eat a hot doughnut while choosing from a number of apple varieties, cheese, cider, pumpkins, Indian corn, hay bales or gourds. Some farms offer corn mazes, hay rides, and gift items to entice visitors. It's a great fresh air, family experience, and a once-a-year treat much anticipated.

But there's a lot more to apples than meets the eye. Whether you date the beginnings of human history from the Stone Age or the Garden of Eden, apples were there. Excavations of prehistoric ruins in Central Europe have found evidence of apples and Roman and Greek mythologies both mention apples as symbols of love and beauty. Romans brought the seeds of apple cultivation with them when they invaded England in the first century BC and apples came to the New World by way of the Pilgrims who had found native crabapples inedible (they can be used to make jelly or spiced apples).

Among the first requests of Massachusetts Bay Colony settlers were for apple seeds and cuttings that soon took root in New England. John Chapman, otherwise known as Johnny Appleseed, did his part by planting apple trees in the Mid-west. Other settlers brought the apple to the Virginia colony and on to the Southwest and it's said that seeds from an apple given to an English sea captain in 1820 provided the origin of the Washington State apple crop.

Some Apple Facts
• In 1904, the US listed nearly 8000 apple varieties; today there are about 200, with about 100 varieties grown commercially.
• One of George Washington's hobbies was pruning his apple trees.
• Apples belong to the rose family along with peaches, cherries, plums, and pears. Apple-growing science is called pomology.
• Standard apples trees take about five years to produce their first fruit. They can grow up to 40 feet tall and live one hundred or more years.
• Apple trees can be grown farther north than many other fruits because they don't flower until late in the spring, usually past the danger of frost.
• More than 85 percent of the nation's annual 220,000,000 bushel crop is produced in Washington, New York, Michigan, California, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The first apples exported were Newton Pippins in 1768.
• Delicious apples are the most widely grown but other favorites are McIntosh, Empire, Rome, Spartan, Courtland, Granny Smith, Fugi, Gala, Braeburn, and Liberty. Heirloom and antique varieties such as Red Courtland, Senshu, and Northern Spy are enjoying resurgence. Macoun, Winter Banana, Spenser, Paulared, and Honeycrisp are popular in Maine. If you get the chance, try a variety you've never had before.
• It takes the energy of 50 leaves to produce one apple; 36 apples are needed to make one gallon of cider; two plus pounds of apples are needed for one pie (use more than one baking variety for a better-tasting pie).
• Apples have no sodium, no cholesterol, are low in calories, high in fiber, have less than 1 percent fat, are rich in essential vitamins and minerals, may help reduce stress, prevent tooth decay, and fight cancer. Twenty-five percent of an apple's volume is air: that's why they float.
• Eat the peel.
• Apple juice or cider refreshes when it's served cool and revives when served warm. Remember all the apple juice you drank as a kid and how much you look forward to mulled cider at holiday gatherings?
• When cut in half an apple's seeds form a star.
• Apples come second only to oranges as the nation's most valuable fruit crop.

Even if you don't live in Maine, celebrate autumn and the apple on October 14 by visiting a nearby stand or orchard and taking a bite of a real American treat.

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