History of Apples

Hi I'm Charles Boning author of Florida's Best Fruiting Plants. We are here at Jene's Tropicals. I want to talk to you briefly about the history of apples. Apples are thought of often as a distinctly American fruit. But in actuality they arose on the opposite side of the world. Central Asia. Most experts and authorities place the origin somewhere around Armenia, Western Turkey, Eastern Turkey or the area of the Caspian Sea. Others place it further west. Near the border of Kazakhstan, western China. Where ever it is ,the apple came to Europe in the early period probably prior to the time of the Greeks. It was certainly used by the Greeks and the Romans had a major classification system for apples. Apples came to the new world prior to sixteen thirty. And may have come over with the pilgrims originally. They were vital fruit for settlers because they stored very easily and they were readily transportable. Johnny Appleseed or John Chapman was a real person responsible for distributing apples throughout much of the Midwest. Apples were transported to Washington state by eighteen forty four and today Washington is the number one grower of apples in the United States. Michigan and New York are also major growers. One fact about the apple that few people know is the apple itself, the edible portion isn't the fruit. The actual fruit of the apple is the interior core. The edible portion is simply the swollen floral cap. I'm Charles Boning and that's about the history of apples.