Apple pie — and Mom: what could be more American? The problem
is: apple pie was a British invention and English colonists brought
apples to America. The unique American aspect of apples, are the varieties
developed here: Golden and Red Delicious, Jonathan, and McIntosh.
More than 2,500 varieties of apples grow in America today, and 4,300,000
tons are produced annually. From "an apple a day," to icon of the
computer industry ... American apples have unique stories.
FIRST APPLE TREES PLANTED
IN THE
PACIFIC NORTHWEST
According to some accounts, the first apple tree in the Pacific Northwest
sprang from a seed brought from London in 1824 by Captain Aemilius
Simpson. The story goes that at a farewell banquet held in his honor,
a young lady — as a joke — gave him the core of the apple
she had eaten and asked him to plant the seeds in the American wilderness.
When Captain Simpson arrived at Fort Vancouver in what is now Washington
state, he gave the seeds to Dr. John McLoughlin, then Chief Agent
for Hudson's Bay Company in the Pacific Northwest. Delighted by the
gift, Dr. McLoughlin entrusted the seeds to is gardener, who planted
and nurtured them in a glass house. A single tree grew from Dr. McLoughlin's
seeds and was carefully protected: the first year it bore one fruit,
but the second year the apples flourished.
By the 1850s, production was high enough to begin exporting apples
to California. Apples were shipped to San Francisco in theft-proof
iron bound crates and fetched incredible prices. One account dated
to 1853, reported that four bushels of apples were sold in San Francisco
for $500. Because of the potential for profit by selling apples to
Gold Rush miners, Californians began to plant their own orchards.
Ultimately, the demand for Pacific Northwest apples declined and prices
dropped sharply. Constructions of the Northern Pacific Railroad in
1893, however, made it possible to ship Pacific Northwest apples to
eastern markets and the industry prospered once again. [4:1]
Did
You Know?
|
APPLES AND BEES
"Bees" were rural gatherings that combined work with socializing.
Women got together for apple bees to preserve apples for winter.
They pared, quartered, cored, and strung apples to dry, while
catching up on all the news. These activities declined after labor
saving machines emerged during the mid-19th century. [4: 3] |
|
JOHNNY APPLESEED
John Chapman is better known to Americans today as "Johnny Appleseed."
Although depicted by artists as scattering apple seeds across the land,
he actually planted apple seedlings, expertly and rationally, in nurseries.
By 1801 he had created a chain of apple nurseries from the Allegheny
mountains, through central Ohio, as far west as Indiana. [4: 2]
FOURTH OF JULY ON THE BANKS OF THE PLATTE
RIVER
The
banquet hall was formed of four wagons - two on each side covered over
with tent cloths. There were tin platters and iron spoons, and knives
and forks for the ladies. Down the center, the luxuries of the season
were placed in tin pans: boiled beans and salt pork, bean broth,
middling bacon, ship bread, and hot rolls of wheat bread, dried apple
and peach pies, and stewed dried apples. The Star-spangled banner,
floated through an opening in the roof.
J. Goldsborough Bruff, 1849 [4: 5]
A PASSENGER'S RECOLLECTION:
Courageous slaves escaped
using a system of safe houses known as the "Underground
Railroad."
I came to
a corn-field... Grain by grain I worked away... when my jaws grew tired,
I would rest, and then begin afresh... I felt that my life was at least
safe from death by hunger.
James Pennington, 1850 [4: 6]
RECIPE FOR NEW ENGLAND PIE — WITH A HUMOROUS TWIST
To make
this excellent breakfast dish, proceed as follows: Take a sufficiency of
water and a sufficiency of flour, and construct a bullet-proof dough.
Work this into the form of a disk, with the edges turned up some
three-fourths of an inch. Toughen and kiln-dry it a couple of days in a
mild but unvarying temperature. Construct a cover for this redoubt in
the same way and of the same material. Fill with stewed dried apples;
aggravate with cloves, lemon-peel, and slabs of citron; add two portions
of New Orleans sugar, then solder on the lid and set in a safe place
till it petrifies. Serve cold at breakfast and invite your
enemy.
Mark
Twain
A Tramp Abroad, 1907 [4: 7]
|
Previous Page
Next
Page