Apples
When I was young, every time I went to school’s field trip, my mother brought us sushi, snacks, as well as an apple. At that time, most of the apples were imported and very expensive; therefore, they were only bought on important occasions. Unexpectedly, one time my sister took a bite of an apple and threw it away. After my mother found out, there would be no apples for field trips anymore. So the memory of the apple at the beginning is: it is a very expensive fruit.
Now in Taiwan’s supermarkets and fruit stalls, apples are definitely one of the most common fruits. The most common apples in Taiwan are Fuji, Gala, Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Golden Crown, etc. With the advancement of refrigeration and storage technology, apples have long become a global fruit! According to the United Nations Agriculture and Food Agency, the world produced 84.63 million tons of apples in 2014, right after tomatoes, bananas and watermelons. The ancestor of the apple is the Xinjiang wild apple (Malus sieversii) in Central Asia. There are about 35 different species of Apple plants in the world, of which only three are edible by humans. The apples that originated in Central Asia developed into “cotton apples” （綿蘋果，Malus domestica）, Chinese pearleaf crabapple （花紅，Malus asiatica）, Chinese crabapple（楸子，Malus prunifolia）, and many species of crabapples （Malus spp.）, and along the westward developed into the present Fuji, Gala, Red Delicious and other foreign apples. Taiwan’s cultivated apples were first planted in Fushoushan Farm by the veterans in 1958. After a few years, they succeeded and gradually spread to Lishan, Jiayang, Wuling Farms and other places.
When we were chewing on sweet, delicious and crisp foreign apples, what everyone did not know was that most of the fruit of wild apple trees had a slight bitter taste. Perhaps because of this, ancient Europeans believed that fresh apples were poisonous, and doctors did not recommend eating apples raw; even in the Renaissance, people believed that eating raw apples would cause diseases such as gastritis and hyperacidity. At that time, apples were mainly used for cooking, wine making, skin care, hair care, and joint pain. Cider was once an important beverage in European and American rural areas. On average, each person drank 0.68 liters of cider per day. Even the British explorer, Captain Cook, carried cider on his South China Sea voyage in 1776 to prevent the crew from being attacked by scurvy.
It may be because of the sweetness and bitterness of apples. Many literary stories about apples are not all positive: For example, the Trojan War in Greek mythology started with the golden apple, while the poisonous apple of Snow White in fairy tales , is a household name.
After the Europeans discovered the New World, many different apple strains were also brought to the North American continent; the founding fathers President Washington and President Jefferson planted many apple trees on their estates. When it comes to Apple in the United States, one cannot fail to mention a legend: John Chapman (1774–1845). Chapman began traveling around the United States at the age of 30 and vigorously advocated the cultivation of apples by providing apple seeds to local residents. Therefore, he got a nickname: Johnny Appleseed. Although Chapman actually preached by advocating growing apples, his story became an inspiring American legend in later generations.
From before to now, everyone’s favorite Apple is not all the same. From the early 20th century to the 1980s, the most popular apple was the whole bright red Red Delicious apple. But when Red Delicious first appeared, it was almost chopped off several times! When it came to fruition for the first time, the fruit that grew bright red and fragrant, immediately captured everyone’s hearts; even the Washington Apple Association used its shape as the association’s symbol! However, by the end of the 1980s, consumers began to get tired of the bright red but light taste of the Red Delicious. It is replaced by sweet and crisp Granny Smith, Fuji and Gala.
In 1958, the Taiwanese government established three farms in Fushoushan, Qingjing, and Wuling in the Lishan area to take care of veterans from WWII. Although these farms provided us with delicious apples, pears, and mountain vegetables, they also opened up mountain tourism and temperate agriculture, which caused soil erosions to the environment of Taiwan’s mountains.
Have you heard the story about Newton’s understanding of the law of universal gravitation because he saw an apple fall? Is this story true? According to Newton’s life notes compiled by his assistant at the Royal Mint, John Conduitt, this happened in the late summer of 1666. In other words, Apple may have really contributed to the discovery of great scientific laws!
