Hath God not said Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

We all know about one of the most significant food moments ever written. Eve is tempted into eating the forbidden fruit that comes from the ‘tree of knowledge of good and evil’. She takes a bite from the luscious apple and asks her partner Adam to share it with her, despite them both knowing that God told them not to eat this particular fruit. This consequently causes their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. As a result of this food moment, the apple acquires negative connotations and becomes an icon of temptation, sin, sexuality and the loss of innocence. But if we look closely at the bible, it does not actually say the fruit is an apple, which makes me wonder: how does the apple come into the equation? Even though the apple is not named, it still manages to stand for the dominant image of temptation and more importantly, giving into temptation.

This food blog will be looking at the positive and negative connotations associated with apples. I also want to look at the origins of this fruit. I will also touch on issues related with feminine identity and why apples have become symbolic of female sexuality. I also want to challenge myself to make one apple based dessert (an apple crumble).I will be looking at a range of literary texts, artwork, the media and cookbooks throughout my blog, to draw discussions from. I hope you guys are ready for the adventure I am about to take you on!

These are some of the questions my blog will attempt to answer:

Why are apples known as the forbidden fruit? (Obviously because they are so tasty)
What are the negative/positive representations of apples?

Why is the relationship between apples and women problematic within art, literature and poetry?