APPLE
Apples are fat, sodium, and cholesterol free. A medium apple
has about 80 calories. Apples originated in the Middle East (in an area between
the Caspin and the Black Sea) more than 4000 years ago! They were the favorite
fruit of ancient Greeks and Romans. Apples arrived in England at around the time
of the Norman conquest (in 1066) and English settlers brought them to America in
the 1600 and 1700's. Johnny Appleseed did really exist; his name was John
Chapman, and he was born on September 26,1774 near Leominster, Massachusetts
- 2500 varieties of apples are grown in the United States.
- 7500 varieties of apples are grown throughout the world.
- About 100 different varieties of apples are grown commercially in the
United States.
- Apples are grown commercially in 36 states.
- Apples are grown in all 50 states
Europeans eat about 46 pounds of apples annually.
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United States consumers ate an average of 45.2 pounds of fresh apples and
processed apple products.
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That's a lot of applesauce! 61 percent of United States apples are eaten as
fresh fruit.
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39 percent of apples are processed into apple products;
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21 percent of this is for juice and cider.
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The top apple producing states are Washington, New York, Michigan, California,
Pennsylvania and Virginia, which produced over 83 percent of the nation’s
2001-crop apple supply.
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Apples are a great source of the fiber pectin. One apple has five grams of
fiber. In 2001 there were 8,000 apple growers with orchards covering 430,200
acres.
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The pilgrims planted the first United States apple trees in the Massachusetts
Bay Colony.
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Apple trees take four to five years to produce their first fruit, but you
normally buy 2 or 3 year plants at the nursery, so it's only 2 years till they
produce! Most apples are still picked by hand in the fall.
- Apple varieties range in size from a little larger than a cherry to as large
as a grapefruit. In Europe, France, Italy and Germany are the leading apple
producing countries.
- Apples are a member of the rose family. Apples harvested from an average
tree can fill 20 boxes that weigh 42 pounds each.
- 25 percent of an apple's volume is air.
- That is why they float. It takes the energy from 50 leaves to produce one
apple.
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Apples are the second most valuable fruit grown in the United States.
Oranges are first. In colonial time apples were called winter banana or
melt-in-the-mouth. China is the leading producer of apples with over 1.2
billion bushels grown in 2001. The U.S. is number 2 and then Turkey, Poland and
Italy. Newton Pippin apples were the first apples exported from America in
1768, some were sent to Benjamin Franklin in London. One of George Washington's
hobbies was pruning his apple trees. America's longest-lived apple tree was
reportedly planted in 1647 by Peter Stuyvesant in his Manhattan orchard and was
still bearing fruit when a derailed train struck it in 1866. A bushel of apples
weights about 42 pounds and will yield 20-24 quarts of applesauce. It takes
about 36 apples to create one gallon of apple cider. And the many apple
associations listed on this page have more facts and resources
