History of the Apple
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Mark’s Daily Apple aims to give you a quick slice of the best health information in a fun, helpful online community. Also, Mark’s Daily Kumquat just didn’t have the same ring. Although, we do love citrus.
A Brief History of the Apple
The apple has enjoyed a very rich history. The apple has been alternately worshipped, reviled, planted, and eaten since the very dawn of the human story. Indeed, the apple’s first claim to fame is being the fruit that tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden. The advent of DNA testing has led scholars to conclude that it was, in fact, a persimmon which was responsible for the downfall of man. However, the apple myth persists.
The apple rose to more favorable prominence during the reign of the sea-faring Phoenicians. According to historical records, the apple proved useful for the long and turbulent Mediterranean voyages to foreign ports. Additionally, the Phoenicians developed a prototype of the world’s first invisible ink using apple juice. This is a little-known fact, likely due to the puzzling historical emphasis on the Phoenician’s success with indigo ink; also, their invention of the Western alphabet.
This has not been the first case of the apple being overlooked on its journey to eventual fame and fortune. The Hittites were notorious for burning the apple orchards of Lebanon and replanting them with the cedar trees for which that country is now so renowned.
During the time of the Roman Empire, the apple became both a popular dessert and dental care tool, offering what Professor of Apple Studies Dr. Johannes Cobbler, in a career-making statement, called “a most delicious irony.”
The apple, along with carrots and turnips, was a chief pot-herb during the medieval era, and was also an important spiritual ornament in pagan ceremonies of the Norse and Druids. It is rumored that St. Nicholas actually gave apples to children on the first Christmas holiday, but scholars have not proven this conclusively, and the mainstream of academia does not entertain this theory seriously.
The apple experienced a major resurgence in popularity with Johnny Appleseed. Johnny planted a trail of apple seeds across much of Virginia, Mississippi, Kentucky, Ohio, North Dakota and even as far as Wyoming. Though Johnny Appleseed is a treasured piece of national American folklore, his purpose for planting apple trees was, in fact, rather nefarious. Appleseed sought to provide apples to American pioneers for brewing hard apple cider. During the colonial and frontier eras, even children drank the alcoholic brew, for fresh water was not always available. It has been suggested by postmodern apple theorists that Appleseed may, in fact, have been a British operative.
Apple cider’s heyday ended with the first influx of German immigrants during the 1830s. Beer quickly became a popular beverage. This led to a national apple supply crisis, with piles of apples rotting on street corners and spoiling barrels everywhere. However, this was the era of Republican Motherhood, and industrious housewives averted the crisis with the baking of apple pies. Thus began a new chapter in the history of the apple.
In 1946, a Yale research student discovered the apple’s amazing health benefits. The word “antioxidant” had not yet been invented, but a rapid series of subsequent studies revealed that, amazingly, an apple a day kept the doctor away. The year 1971, of course, will forever be remembered for the mass rioting of doctors across the country, culminating in the infamous Detroit Applesauce Incident. The ensuing disastrous PR campaign “Ripe not Rotten” quickly became a textbook case study in marketing courses around the globe.
What is next for the apple? The apple has remained relevant in American society through its many transitions – agrarian to industrial, industrial to technological – and scientists are excited about the apple’s potential in the future. For the present, this fibrous friend is content to ripen here at Mark’s Daily Apple.
