Paris had hoped his
golden apple would win
him Helen of Troy. And
according to npr.org, in
colonial New England
“an eligible young lady
would try to peel an
apple in a single un-
broken strip, toss the
peel over her shoulder,
and peer nervously to
see what letter the peel
formed on the floor:
This was the initial of
her future husband.”4
Johnny Apple-
seed, immortal-
ized in a 1948
Disney film, was a real
person. John Chapman
was a missionary who
“spread good seeds and
a new take on the king-
dom of heaven, trek-
king barefoot in a
sackcloth shirt through
Pennsylvania, Ohio,
and Indiana during the
first half of the 19th
century,” according to
the Brooklyn Botanic
Garden. But by the
1920s, most of his trees
were gone—chopped
down by the FBI during
Prohibition so that peo-
ple couldn’t use the ap-
ples to make hard cider.5
Apples grown in
the United States
during the 18th and
19th centuries were of-
ten more likely to end up
in a cider barrel than in
a pie. “In rural areas, ci-
der took the place of not
only wine and beer but
of coffee and tea, juice,
and even water,” author
Michael Pollan wrote in
The Botany of Desire.6
New York City’s
famous nickname
wasn’t inspired by
the fruit. During the
19th century, the term
the big apple began to
be used to describe
“something regarded as
the most significant of
its kind; an object of
desire and ambition,”
according to a New York
Public Library blog post.
The term’s first known
use in reference to New
York appeared in 1909,
when Edward S. Martin
wrote in The Wayfarer
in New York that the
Midwest “inclines to
think that the big apple
[New York] gets a dis-
proportionate share of
the national sap.” Some
things never change.7
While it may
seem as if your
grocery store
has a nice selection,
we’re a long way from
what fruit historians
describe as “the golden
age of pomology.”
During the 19th century,
there were about 14,000
distinct apple varieties
across the United
States. Today, only
around 100 varieties of
apples are commer-
cially grown.8
There’s plenty of
truth to the saying
“An apple a day
keeps the doctor away.”
A large apple has about
115 calories and five
grams of fiber per
serving, and the fruit’s
polyphenols and fiber
help balance bacteria
in your gut. But make
sure not to peel it: Two
thirds of an apple’s
antioxidants and much
of its fiber are found in
the skin.9
That said, as
Snow White can
attest, apples
aren’t entirely benign.
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