NATIONAL EAT AN APPLE DAY- SEPT 21

International Eat An Apple Day, held on the third Saturday of September each year, is on September 21 this year, and encourages us to bite into this crunchy, bright-colored fruit. Don’t stop there; the goal here is to eat one each day. As the saying goes, that’s how you keep the doctor away.

HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL EAT AN APPLE DAY

The apple originated in central Asia, in the Tien Shan mountain range of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. In human terms, we’d call this species of apple the great-great-great(repeat many times) grandparent of the present apple. This older wild apple featured prominently in the food and culture of the region it came from, and Kazakhstan’s Alma-Ata — now called Almaty, loosely meant ‘Father of Apples.’

Merchants using the Silk Road — a network of trade routes connecting China and the Far East to the Middle East and Europe — discovered these wild apples and were the reason this fruit spread to western Europe. From there, European colonists took the apple to America. As the story goes, the very first apple trees were planted in the Massachusetts Bay Colony by pilgrims. Over the years, these wild apples were cultivated and cross-pollinated to become the species we see in commercial farms today.

Apples feature prominently throughout history, appearing in poems by Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson, and in paintings by Caravaggio and Magritte. Apples have also appeared in folklore and stories. The Arabian Nights featured a magic apple that cures all human diseases, and perhaps the most famous book of all — the Bible, apparently alludes to the apple too. Although the testament only specifies fruit, the idea that this was the apple came around in the 12th century in western Europe. The thought might have stemmed from the fact that in Latin, ‘malus’ means both ‘apple’ and ‘evil.’ This thought gained steam, and by 1504, there was even a painting by Albrecht Durer, showing Adam and Eve with apples around them. Apples had unique significance in Greek and Norse mythology as well. The Norse goddess Iðunn awarded eternal youth via apples, and a golden apple caused the Trojan War in the Greek epic tale, Iliad.

By the 20th century, industrial agriculture-focused efforts on only a few varieties of apples in the U.S., like the Red Delicious, Granny Smith, and McIntosh. The push for new varieties and diversity came in the 21st century, with new consumers driving this demand.

INTERNATIONAL EAT AN APPLE DAY TIMELINE

1300s First Apple Pie Recipe

Originating in England, this recipe says you are not supposed to eat apple pie crust.

Early 1700s Apples Come to America

European colonists bring the apple to the U.S.

1800s John Appleseed Aka John Chapman

The famous folktale was inspired by the real guy, Chapman, who benefits from the rule that anyone can claim land by creating a permanent orchard on the same land; he plants apple trees all over parts of the U.S. and then sells the land.

1866 The Proverb Comes to Life

A Pembrokeshire proverb, “Eat an apple on going to bed, and you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread,” is the forerunner to today’s common proverb, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” which was coined in 1913.

2010 The Genetics of the Apple

The genome, the complete set of genetic information, of the modern apple is studied; it has 21,000 more unique genes than the human genome.

2019 Apples get more Famous.

A cross of the Honeycrisp and Enterprise variety of apple, called the Cosmic Crisp, features on NPR as the holiday season approaches.