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Apple | | Name : | Apple | | Botanical : | Pyrus malus | | Synonyms : | Apple
| | Family : | Pomaceae | | Parts Used : | Fruit and bark | | Habitat : | Cultivated throughout much of North America and naturalized in eastern United States, on the prairies, in southern Canada and the Pacific states. | | Description : | The Crab-tree is a small tree of general distribution in Britain south of Perthshire. In most respects it closely resembles the cultivated Apple of the orchard differing chiefly only in the size and flavour of the fruit. Well-grown specimens are not often met with, as in woods and copses it is cramped by other trees and seldom attains any considerable height, 30-foot specimens being rare and many being mere bushes. Those found in hedgerows have often sprung from the seeds of orchard apples that have reverted to ancestral type. The branches of the Crab-tree become pendant, with long shoots which bear the leaves and flowers. The leaves are dark green and glossy and the flowers, in small clusters on dwarf shoots are produced in April and May. The buds are deeply tinged with pink on the outside the expanded flowers an inch and a half across, and when the trees are in full bloom, they are a beautiful sight.
The blossoms, by their delightful fragrance and store of nectar, attract myriads of bees, and as a result of the fertilization effected by these visitors in their search for the buried nectar, the fruit develops and becomes in autumn the beautiful little Crab Apple, which when ripe is yellow or red in colour and measures about an inch across. It has a very austere and acid juice, in consequence of which it cannot be eaten in the raw condition, but a delicious jelly is made from it, which is always welcome on the table, and the fruit can also be used for jammaking, with blackberries, pears or quinces. In Ireland, it is sometimes added to cider, to impart a roughness. The fruit in some varieties is less acid than in others: in the variety in which the fruit hangs down from the shoots, the little apples are exceedingly acid, but in another kind, they stand more or less erect on their stalks and these are so much less acid as to give almost a suggestion of sweetness. The fruit of the Siberian Crab, or Cherry-apple, grown as an ornamental tree, makes also a fine preserve.
Cider Apples may be considered as a step in development from the Wild Apple to the Dessert Apple. Formerly every farmhouse made its cider. The apples every autumn were tipped in heaps on the straw-strewn floor of the pound house, a building of cob, covered with thatch, in which stood the pounder and the press and vats and all hands were busy for days preparing the golden beverage. This was the yearly process - still carried out on many farms of the west of England, though cider-making is becoming more and more a product of the factories. One of the men turned the handle of the pounder, while a boy tipped in the apples at the top. A pounder is a machine which crushes the apples between two rollers with teeth in them. The pulp and juice are then taken to the press in large shovels which have high sides and are scored bright by the acid. The press is a huge square tray with a lip in the centre of the front side and its floor slopes towards this opening. On either side are huge oaken supports on which rests a square baulk of the same wood. Through this works a large screw. Under the timber is the presser Directly the pulp is ready, the farmer starts to prepare the 'cheese.' First of all goes a layer of straw, then a layer of apples, and so on until the 'cheese' is a yard high, and sometimes more. Then the ends of straw which project are turned up to the top of the heap. Now the presser is wound down and compresses the mound until the clear juice runs freely. Under the lip in the front of the cider press is put a vat. The juice is dipped from this into casks. In four months' time the cider will be ready to drink.
The demand for cider has increased rapidly of late years, chiefly on account of the dry varieties being so popular with sufferers from rheumatism and gout. As very good prices have been paid in recent seasons for the best cider apples, and as eight tons per acre is quite an average crop from a properly-managed orchard in full bearing, it is obvious to all progressive and up-to-date farmers and apple-growers that this branch of agriculture is well worthy of attention. In the last few years, with the object of encouraging this special Applegrowing industry, silver cups have been awarded to the owners of cider-apple orchards in Devon who make the greatest improvement in the cultivation of their orchards during the year, and it is hoped this will still further stimulate the planting of new orchards and the renovation of the old ones.
The peculiar winy odour is stimulating to many. Pliny, and later, Sir John Mandeville, tell of a race of little men in 'Farther India' who 'eat naught and live by the smell of apples.' Burton wrote that apples are good against melancholy and Dr. John Caius, physician to Queen Elizabeth, in his Boke of Counseille against the Sweatynge Sicknesse advises the patient to 'smele to an old swete apple to recover his strengthe.' An apple stuck full of cloves was the prototype of the pomander, and pomatum (now used only in a general sense) took its name from being first made of the pulp of apples, lard and rosewater.
In Shakespeare's time, apples when served at dessert were usually accompanied by caraway, as we may read in Henry IV, where Shallow invites Falstaff to 'a pippin and a dish of caraway,' In a still earlier Booke of Nurture, it is directed 'After mete pepyns, caraway in comfyts.' The custom of serving roast apples with a little saucerful of Carraways is still kept up at Trinity College, Cambridge, and at some of the old-fashioned London Livery dinners, just as in Shakespeare's days.
The taste for apples is one of the earliest and most natural of inclinations; all children love apples, cooked or uncooked. Apple pies, apple puddings, apple dumplings are fare acceptable in all ages and all conditions.
Apple cookery is very early English: Piers Ploughman mentions 'all the povere peple' who 'baken apples broghte in his lappes' and the ever popular apple pie was no less esteemed in Tudor times than it is to-day, only our ancestors had some predilections in the matter of seasonings that might not now appeal to all of us, for they put cinnamon and ginger in their pies and gave them a lavish colouring of saffron.
Apple Moyse is an old English confection, no two recipes for which seem to agree. One Black Letter volume tells us to take a dozen apples, roast or boil them, pass them through a sieve with the yolks of three or four eggs, and as they are strained temper them with three or four spoonfuls of damask (rose) water; season them with sugar and half a dish of sweet butter, and boil them in a chafing dish and cast biscuits or cinnamon and ginger upon them.
Halliwell says, upon one authority, that apple moyse was made from apples after they had been pressed for cider, and seasoned with spices.
Probably the American confection, Apple Butter, is an evolution of the old English dish? Apple butter is a kind of jam made of tart apples, boiled in cider until reduced to a very thick smooth paste, to which is added a flavouring of allspice, while cooking. It is then placed in jars and covered tightly.The once-popular custom of wassailing the orchard-trees' on Christmas Eve, or the Eve of the Epiphany, is not quite extinct even yet in a few remote places in Devonshire. More than three centuries ago Herrick mentioned it among his 'Ceremonies of Christmas Eve':'Wassaile the trees, that they may beare You many a Plum and many a Peare: For more or lesse fruits they will bring, As you do give them Wassailing.'The ceremony consisted in the farmer, with his family and labourers, going out into the orchard after supper, bearing with them a jug of cider and hot cakes. The latter were placed in the boughs of the oldest or best bearing trees in the orchard, while the cider was flung over the trees after the farmer had drunk their health in some such fashion as the following: 'Here's to thee, old apple-tree!Whence thou may'st bud, and whence thou may'st blow,Hats full! Caps full!Bushel - bushel-bags full!And my pockets full too! Huzza!'
The toast was repeated thrice, the men and boys often firing off guns and pistols, and the women and children shouting loudly.
Roasted apples were usually placed in the pitcher of cider, and were thrown at the trees with the liquid. Trees that were bad bearers were not honoured with wassailing but it was thought that the more productive ones would cease to bear if the rite were omitted. It is said to have been a relic of the heathen sacrifices to Pomona. The custom also prevailed in Somersetshire and Dorsetshire.Roast apples, or crabs, formed an indispensable part of the old-fashioned 'wassailbowl,' or 'good brown bowl,' of our ancestors.'And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl In very likeness of a roasted Crab'
Puck relates in Midsummer's Night's Dream.
The mixture of hot spiced ale, wine or cider, with apples and bits of toast floating in it was often called 'Lamb's wool,' some say from its softness, but the word is really derived from the Irish 'la mas nbhal,' 'the feast of the apple-gathering' (All Hallow Eve), which being pronounced somewhat like 'Lammas-ool,' was corrupted into 'lamb's wool.' It was usual for each person who partook of the spicy beverage to take out an apple and eat it, wishing good luck to the company. | | Constituents : | Various analyses show that the Apple contains from 80 to 85 per cent. of water, about 5 per cent. of proteid or nitrogenous material, from 10 to 15 per cent. of carbonaceous matter, including starch and sugar, from 1 to 1.5 per cent. of acids and salts. The sugar content of a fresh apple varies from 6 to 10 per cent., according to the variety. In spite of the large proportion of water, the fresh Apple is rich in vitamins, and is classed among the most valuable of the anti-scorbutic fruits for relieving scurvy. All apples contain a varying amount of the organic acids, malic acid and gallic acid, and an abundance of salts of both potash and soda, as well as salts of lime, magnesium, and iron.
It has been calculated that in 100 grams of dried apples, there are contained 1.7 milligrams of iron in sweet varieties and 2.1 milligrams in sour varieties. It has also been proved by analysis that the Apple contains a larger quantity of phosphates than any other vegetable or fruit.
The valuable acids and salt of the Apple exist to a special degree in and just below the skin, so that, to get the full value of an apple, it should be eaten unpeeled.
The bark of the Apple-tree which is bitter, especially the root-bark, contains a principle called Phloridzin, and a yellow colouring matter, Quercetin, both extracted by boiling water. The seeds give Amygdaline and an edible oil.
Apple oil is Amyl Valerate or Amylvaleric Ester. An alcoholic solution has been used as a flavouring liquid, called Apple Essence.
Fresh apple-juice is employed for the N.F. Ferrated Extract of Apples. | | Uses : | Apples regulate the digestive system, preventing constipation and stopping diarrhea; also neutralizing the effects of rich fatty foods. They help purify the blood, clear gout and rheumatism, and prevent gallstones. They also help to keep the teeth clean.
Tea made from apple tree bark is an old fashioned remedy. It is said to be a tonic, relieves biliousness and intermittent fever, helps digestion (too much stomach acid, eat sweet apples; not enough stomach acid, eat sour apples), dysentery, boils, insect stings, rabid dog bites, and toothache.
Peeled and grated apple relieves flatulence and diarrhea. A fasting diet of 1 or 2 days of unripe apples should do the job. As a laxative, eat 2 or more apples, very effective. Apple peels can be dried and made into a tea, recommended for rheumatism, regulates blood sugar in diabetes. Apple wine is an ancient cure-all, mentioned by Galen in the 2nd century AD. Wine at least 2 years old should be used. Apple juice will turn to apple cider and if aged will become hard apple cider with alcoholic content.
Studies show that apples can reduce blood cholesterol levels.According to one reference, the ordinary apple cider is not fit to be used. | | Dosage : | Infusion: use 1 to 2 tsp. dried apple peels with 1 cup simmering water. Take from 1 to 3 cups a day.
For diarrhea, eat a grated, peeled apple. Dried apple peels simmered in warm water help regulate digestion. For maximum benefit, eat 1 to 2 medium-sized apples every day. | | Safety : | Apple seeds eaten in large quantities can be poisonous. | | Myths : | Apples are rightly called the King of Fruits.
A case is reported of a man who saved apple seeds until he had accumulated a cupful. He then ate the entire amount and died.
In the 2nd century, Galen, the famous court physician to the emperors and the gladiators, prescribed apple wine as a cure-all for nearly every ailment.
Eating an apple a day and getting proper exercise will change your life from ill health to healthy. Most people overeat, causing ill health with the over-indulgence.
The Chinese word for apple (P. malus) is Lin-ch'in.
Apples are thought to originate in Southwest Asia, in the region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. The diggings of Stone Age lake dwellers in central Europe show apple usage long before recorded history.The origin of the Trojan War was attributed to 'the apple of discord', a golden apple down in front of an assembly of gods by the goddess of hate, Eris. Inscribed on the apple were the words (For the Fairest). Hera, wife of Zeus, queen of the gods; Athene, goddess of wisdom; and Aphrodite, goddess of love; all wanted the apple. Paris, son of the King of Troy, was to decide which goddess got the apple. Hera offered him power and riches; Athene offered wisdom and fame; Aphrodite promised to give him the most beautiful woman in the world. Paris, with Aphrodite's help, abducted Helen, the wife of a Greek king. His refusal to return her started the Trojan War.
Grimm's Fairy Tales have at least four stories (taken from old folk tales) involving apples, including Snow White.
The lives of William Tell and Johnny Appleseed can also be considered in the folk tradition although they involved real people.
In Gerard's time, an ointment made of pulp of apples, swine's grease and rosewater was sold in shops to beautify face and take away roughness of skin. The juice of sour apples was rubbed on warts to remove them. | | Nutrient : | Carbohydrates, sodium, magnesium, potassium, and iron salts | | Sold : | In any supermarket |
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