America through the lens of Johnny Appleseed

public-domain image

Eccentric and saintly, Johnny Appleseed is an unlikely member of the pantheon of American folk superheros that includes such he-men as Davey Crockett, Paul Bunyan, and John Henry.

Like Crockett, Johnny Appleseed was a real person, though his name was John Chapman.

Born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, in the early days of the American Revolution, Chapman grew up in Westfield and headed west to become a frontier nurseryman, bachelor, and sometime Swedenborgian evangelist.

He gleaned apple seeds from cider mills and eked out a living planting them and selling saplings to settlers.

Apple blossom time

Full bloom today on an apple tree in Arlington, Massachusetts.

After several years of harvest jeopardized by early springs, it is a relief to see the trees in bloom in May.

Budding Genus

September's apple harvest as teleologically implied yesterday at Hutchins Farm.

What I've been eating

What apples do you like for late winter and early spring?

I usually lean heavily on Macouns for as long as they last, but the crop was small this year. Empire can be reliable and I often find myself turning to them in April, May, and June.

But this winter I ate a lot of three varieties that previously were only available briefly. They are

• Opal, a new European variety that has just one North American grower
• The uneven, but superb when at best, Lady Alice
• Elusive Pacific Rose

Apples on the Web: American Orchard

For the past few months I have been enjoying a steady stream of writing about apples and their role in American history and culture at American Orchard.

This blog belongs to historian William Kerrigan, the author of Johnny Appleseed and the American Orchard, tantalizing excerpts of which sometimes find themselves into blog posts.

This blog goes right to the heart of the apple as a profoundly social fruit, mediated by society but also mediating it, as in this post about hard cider and the election of 1840.

Remembering the apple harvest

If you miss the apple season as much as I do, you will enjoy Steven Edholm's recapitulation of the harvest on his farm.

In a recent post on his blog, Turkeysong, Steven shares his apple tasting notes for the second half of his growing season, which, since he is located near Ukiah, California, lasts until late January.

Stalking Black Beauty apple

Good old Mother Earth News, still composting after all these years, has published Tom Brown's account of heritage-apple hunting in North Carolina.

Brown is a fruit detective after the manner of Southern heirloom hound Lee Calhoun, knocking on doors and searching newspaper archives to locate old apples and budwood.

Here's one I never heard of: Black Beauty, so called because its extreme susceptibility to sooty blotch renders it as black as coal (if not sprayed) when ripe.

Sooty blotch is harmless and not even skin deep, but can you imagine such an apple in a modern supermarket?

Brown's story is more about the chase than the fruit (what does Black Beauty taste like, anyway?) but it makes a thrilling tale.

Thanks to a friend for sharing this link.

Aligning the stars

Last summer I ranked the world of eating apples from zero to three stars.

Life does not stand still, fortunately, and it's time to make my first set of adjustments to these ratings. 

I expect to do so annually about this time of year, when the trees are still sleeping and there's plenty of time for review and reflection.

The new apples

Just a few years ago you knew what to expect in the fruit section in winter and spring. There would be Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, and (incongruously) Granny Smith. In the Northeast and maybe elsewhere there would be McIntosh and his kin Empire and Cortland.

"Newer" stalwarts might include non-native Gala, Fuji, and Braeburn. In the Northeast you'd also get, fleetingly, the end of the Macouns, if you were lucky. It was the same every year.

Things have changed. The stalwarts are still there, but this week the shelves at my local supermarket were dominated by the likes of Jazz, Pinata, and Cripps Pink. Honeycrisp, like McIntosh, has established itself nearly year round, though like the Mac its best qualities thin over time.

Pacific Rose, Pinata, and Sweetango

Opal *

Large Opal's lively lemon yellow is dialed back just a notch by a drop of orange. Conical and ribbed, she is sparsely decorated with large brown lenticels and a brown crown of russet. One sports a small spotty patch of pink blush.

Unbroken, Opal has a strong aroma of cider and honey and a whiff of spice. Her calyx is only half closed.

Belated good wishes for the new year

Happy new year and thanks to my readers for 2013!

King David here came courtesy of a reader.

Last year was another dicey apple harvest, with crop damage falling unevenly across and within North America's major apple-growing regions.

I continue to be rewarded by the human harvest of personal contact with apple farmers and fanatics of all stripes.

A highlight of my year in apples was a walk in Tower Hill's heritage orchard with Richard Bourrie of the inestimable Orange Pippin web site.

Your comments keep me focused and thinking and are often the source of story ideas.

Arkansas Black & white

Season's greetings from Adam's Apples and Arkansas Black.