The apple emerged
as a celebrated fruit at the beginning human history. Whether you start with
Adam and Eve or the anthropological data on Stone Age man in Europe, the apple
was there. Greek and Roman mythology refer to apples as symbols of love and
beauty. When the Romans conquered England about the first century B.C., they
brought apple cultivation with them. William Tell gained fame by shooting an
apple off his son's head at the order of invaders of Switzerland.
The Pilgrims
discovered crabapples had preceded them to America, but the fruit was not very
edible. The Massachusetts Bay Colony requested seeds and cuttings from England,
which were brought over on subsequent voyages to Boston. Other Europeans
brought apple stock to Virginia and the Southwest, and a Massachusetts man,
John Chapman, became famous for planting trees throughout Ohio, Indiana, and
Illinois (his name became "Johnny Appleseed"). Seeds from an apple
given to a London sea captain in 1820 are sometimes said to be the origin of
the State of Washington apple crop (now the largest in the U.S.).
Horacio "Wolf" Sanchez
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