Unravelling the tale behind the Apple.

Before we begin looking at the negative and positive connotations associated with apples in detail, I wanted to give you guys a brief bite into history of the apple. The origin of the domesticated apple ‘Malus doemstica’ actually originated from Kazakhstan, near the Tien Shan mountains, where the forests to this day are still bountiful with wild apple trees. So how did these apples get from there to here? Well, they were brought along the Silk Road by travellers. But, humans were not the only ones helping the apple become a widespread phenomenon. In Amy Traverso’s The Apple Lover’s Cookbook, she identifies the important role the animals in the Tien Shan forests had:

The Silk Road, or Silk Route, is a network of trade and cultural transmission routes that were central to cultural interaction through regions of the Asian continent connecting the West and East  (Wikipedia)

When the Romans occupied Britain, they introduced the country to sweeter varieties of apples, through growing apple orchards. The only apples we had around before the occupation were “crabapples”, which was mainly drank as cider. In the Tudor times, a brief decline in fruit cultivation due to the black plague meant our precious apples were scarce. But, King Henry VIII and his fruiterer, Richard Harris came up with a plan to import apple trees from France. He reportedly:

(Watson, 20).

By the end of the agricultural revolution in the 18th century, a botanist named Thomas Andrew Knight had successfully cross-pollinated varieties of apples. This led to the development and improvement of many apples, which carried through into the Victorian era. There was a huge increase in the number of apples grown at this time, by gardeners and farmers. This BBC Four documentary Apples: British to the core expands on how the Victorian’s passion for gardening helped the apple become the English national fruit.

During the First and Second World Wars, food rationing was a standard thing. But, foods such as potatoes, fruit and fish were not rationed because they could be grown or in the case of the fish, caught. Only exotic fruits like oranges, bananas, grapes and others were rationed. Eventually the importation of apples to Britain much easier. Apples grown in different countries began to be sold in shops. My favourite apple is the Braeburn which is grown in New Zealand, it was brought here in the early 1990’s. Fast forward to nowadays, we do not even think twice when picking out the apple we want to eat for lunch - they are so many varieties out there, yet to try!

References:

Traverso, Amy. The Apple Lover's Cookbook. New York: W.W. Norton, 2011. Print.

Watson, Ben. Cider, Hard And Sweet. Woodstock, Vt.: Countryman Press, 1999. Print.