If there was a gospel on apples, I would buy it because it's the disciple of fruits.Reading an article about apples in the Guardian, I was surprised to find six varieties of apples in England being harvested now that I haven't even tasted: Court of Wick, Crimson Queening, Achmead's Kernel, Doctor Hares, Downtown Pippin, and Cats Head.
The writer muses, "From the Garden of Eden to William Tell there is no fruit as swathed in romanticism and folklore as the apple, and where would science be without the falling fruit that led Isaac Newton to form his theory of gravity? Sadly, many of our traditional apple varieties with their lyrical names are now as rare as the sight of a golden-skinned farm lad munching a Crimson Queening in the back of a haywain."
The article also provides a link to Orange Pippin, the comprehensive resource for apples and orchards in England with 209 varieties.
Of course, the apostle for apples is Johnny Appleseed (1774-1845), born John Chapman. He was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. He became an American legend while still alive, largely because of his kind and generous ways, his great leadership in conservation, and the symbolic importance he attributed to apples.
Virtualology provides an interesting essay of the mythic personality.
"Generally, even in the coldest weather, he went barefooted, but sometimes, for his long journeys, he would make himself a rude pair of sandals…His dress was generally composed of cast-off clothing, that he had taken in payment for apple-trees…"
The gospel according to Johnny Appleseed and Mutsu suits me fine.
