History and origin of apples

Its primary wild ancestor is Malus sieversii whose range is centered at the border between western China and the former Soviet Union originated 4000 to 10000 years ago. This species is diverse and wild trees bearing the full range of forms, colors, and tastes are found in Kazakhstan and other independent countries of Central Asia formed from the breakup of the Soviet Union.

The cultivated apple then underwent hybridization with its wild relatives during its spread from the Tian Shan Mountains westward along the Silk Route.

Apples were certainly one of the earliest fruits to be gathered by people, and their domestication was probably preceded by a long period of unintentional planting via garbage disposal.

Based on combined archaeological and molecular data, it seems likely that, in the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age, travelers on the great trade routes that ran from central China to the Danube, carried the seed of the Central Asian wild apple west, either in saddle bags or horses’guts.

It was known to the Greeks and Romans and mentioned by Theophrastus in the third century BC. It is difficult to determine exactly when the apple was first domesticated, but the Greeks and Romans were growing apples at least 2,500 years ago. They actively selected superior seedlings and were budding and grafting 2,000 years ago.

Grafting is a practice that is thought to have begun about 3800 years ago based on a cuneiform description of budwood importation for grape in Mesopotamia. Indirect evidence has been obtained for the cultivation of apples 3000 years ago in Mesopotamia.

The Romans probably learned apple grafting, cultivation, harvesting, and storage from the Greeks, and brought the production chain technology to the rest of their empire.

The Romans brought the whole package to Western Europe and, for the last 2000 years, the domesticated apple has diversified and flourished worldwide. It was dispersed to the New World by European settlers during the sixteenth century.

During the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, M. domestica cultivars found or bred in Europe, Russia, North America, New Zealand, Japan, and Australia were introduced throughout the world and form the basis for most current commercial apple production.
History and origin of apples

Affy tapple in history

In 1948 the first Affy Tapple was invented by the Kastrup family and their recipe was developed by Mrs. Edna Kastrup.

This was the first caramel apple in the United States with the tagline "The Original Caramel Apple!"

The Kastrup family opened the Affy Tapple store at Clark Street in Chicago in 1952.

They started as a fundraising tradition, selling it to local schools. In 1995 the company was sold to private investors.
Affy tapple in history

History of caramel apple

The Caramel apple was invented in 1950s by Dan Walker, a sales representative for Kraft Foods. Before that there was a traditional candied apple the one with the cinnamon flavor and the vivid red color which was invented by candy maker William Kolb.

Like candy apples, which are made by coating an apple with a layer of sugar that has been heated, caramel apples’ invention also resulted from experimentation with holiday candy. According to Walker, caramel apple was discovered when he experimenting with excess caramels from Halloween sales; he simply melted them down, and added apples, and the rest is history.

While caramel apples were made manually by hand for the first decade or so of their existence, Vito Raimondi of Chicago, Illinois decided it was time for an automated way to make caramel apples. He invented and patented the first automated caramel apple dipping machine in 1960.

Making caramel apples got a lot easier in 1977 when Kraft Foods introduced its craft sweet wrapples. Wrapples came with sheets of caramel that can be wrapped over fresh apples then stuck a popsicles stick through the top.

Caramel apple has evolved today with many people dipping and decorating them in chocolate, nuts and other candies. One of the caramel apple variants, taffy apples - Caramel apples are often called “taffy apples” when further ingredients such as peanuts are applied.
History of caramel apple

McIntosh apple

It was said that to have originated as a chance seedling in the orchard of one John McIntosh in Ontario, Canada the McIntosh apple is a hero to some pie makers and a villain to others.

In the spring of 1811, John McIntosh stumbled upon a handful of apple tree seedlings while clearing land near Prescott, Ontario where he planned to establish a farm.

Instead of tossing the tiny trees onto a pile of brush that would later be burned he transplanted them to a location closer to his home.

By the following year all but one of the trees had died. He nursed it slowly grew, eventually producing a red, sweet and crisp fruit with a tart taste. This became the McIntosh Red so named because of the family’s name and the distinctive color of the skin.

In 1835, McIntosh’s son Allan McIntosh learned the art of grafting and the family began to produce the apples on a major scale. He established a nursery and extensively promoted the species.

To this day no one is certain how the orphan tree discovered by McIntosh arrived on his property. Experts speculated that it likely grew from the seeds of an apple core tossed onto the ground by a passerby.
McIntosh apple

History of Apples cultivation in United States

In England apples were grown everywhere and had been there so long that Englishman considered them as native to their island.

Finding no apples in America, early settlers quickly remedied the situation by planting apple seeds brought from England.

Before the arrival of settles from Europe, Native Americans commonly gathered raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries that grew will in openings in the forest.

Apples came to North America with the colonists in the 1600s, and the first apple orchard on this continent is said to have been located near Boston in 1625.

Apples were the fruits most commonly grown in the colonies. It was grown chiefly for cider, which was a common drink of rich and poor, used for farmers’ own consumption and for sale, trade and export.

A 1666 English settlers in North Carolina’s Cape Fear River was described as growing ‘apples, pears and other English fruits…..out of planted kernels’.

Anglican clergyman William Blaxton apparently raised the first American variety of apple-the Yellow Sweeting- on Beacon Hill in Boston about 1640.

From New England origins, apples, moved west with pioneers John Chapman (alias Johnny Appleseed), and missionaries during the 1700s and 1800s.

In 1900s, irrigation projects in Washington State began and allowed the development of the multibillion dollar fruit industry, of which the apple is the leading species.

The oldest apple variety surviving today is probably the Pomme d’Api, a small yellow or red fruit that originated in ancient Rome, known today in North America as the Lady or Christmas Apple.
History of Apples cultivation in United States

The Name of Apple

The Name of Apple
Scientific names generally consist of two italicized words, the first denoting the genus, the second a species within that genus.

For apple, Malus domestica is the name for the cultivated apple, where Malus is the genus and domestica the species name.

In Latin, Malus is a noun meaning “apple” or alternately, “evil,” “bad,” “or “wrong.” The dual meaning probably stems from the biblical story of Eve and the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.

The species name domestica is an adjective meaning “around the house” thus, the entire name translates roughly to the domesticated apple.

Neither of the words that the ancient Romans had for apple-malum and pomum – are the source of the English name of this fruit. Instead, apple derives from a Germanic source, one likely related to Avella the name of famous fruit growing region in Italy; however whether the region was named after the fruit or the fruit after the region, is unknown.

In English, the word apple was first recorded in the ninth century, but at that time, and for centuries after, it was used to refer not only to apples in particular, but also to fruit in general: Aelfric, for example, the greatest prose writer of Old English, even referred to the cucumber as an apple.

Last, but not least, someone always has to take credit for things, so the authority is tacked in the scientific name, denoting the person who named the plant.

In the case of apple, it was a botanist named Borkhausen, so the precise full name for apple is Malus domestica Borkh.
The Name of Apple

Malus Domestica (apple): History of Cultivation

Malus Domestica (apple): History of Cultivation
Their center of diversity of the genus Malus is the east Turkey, southwest Russia region of Asia.

Although a few Malus species are native to North America, they ere never domesticated as a food crop on this continent.

Apple were probably improved through selections over a period of thousands of year by early farmers.

Domestication efforts were no doubt frustrating because planting apple seeds from good quality fruit generally does not produce new trees with even remotely similar fruit.

This stems from apples being a cross –pollinated and highly heterozygous species.

Also, they do not root from cuttings the way grapes and olive would and their complete domestication was not possible until grafting was invented , sometime is the first millennium BC.

Once this accomplished, Greek and Romans selected superior types and spread them throughout Europe.

Alexander the Great is credited with finding dwarfed apples in Asia Minor in 300 BC, those he brought back to Greece may well have been the progenitors of dwarfing rootstock.

The excellent keeping qualities of apples were discovered by at least 100 BC, as the Roman Varro provided written accounts of “fruit houses” for storing apples for winter.

Throughout medieval times, several authors detailed fertility, water, site preferences and pruning of apple trees.

Apples came to North America with the colonists in the 1600s, and the first apple orchard on this continent is said to have been located near Boston in 1625.

From New England origins, apples, moved west with pioneers. John Chapman (alias Johnny Appleseed) and missionaries during the 1700s, and 1800s.

In 1900s, irrigation projects in Washington State began and allowed the development of the multibillion dollar fruit industry, of which the apple is the leading species.

Today, apple production is growing most rapidly in California and remaining steady or declining in the eastern states due to overproduction and greater disease and insect pressures.
Malus Domestica (apple): History of Cultivation