Fruit of the Week - Apples

Well I was running out of the weekly spices so it's on to the many different varieties of Fruit.

The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family (Rosaceae). It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans.

The tree originated in Western Asia, where its wild ancestor, the Alma, is still found today. There are more than 7,500 known cultivars of apples, resulting in a range of desired characteristics. Cultivars vary in their yield and the ultimate size of the tree, even when grown on the same rootstock.

Common Apple Varieties
• Baldwin Apple1: An all-purpose red-skinned apple, mottled and streaked with yellow, with a mildly sweet-tart flavor, fairly crisp texture, from the New York region, available from October to April.

• Cortland Apple2: All-purpose red apple with crisp, juicy, sweet-tart flesh that resists browning, smooth shiny red skin, a Northwest favorite good for cooking and hand-eating.

• Crabapple3: Small, rosy red, hard tart flesh, too sour for hand-eating, makes great jellies, jams and good with pork and poultry, available during the fall months.

• Criterion Apple4: Slightly tart, bright red skin with green highlights, good for baking and hand-eating.

• Gala Apple5: Brilliant rosy red skin. Firm and crisp, sweet and juicy, the Gala apple is good for pies as well as eating out of hand. Available September through June.

• Golden Delicious Apple6: Yellow to yellow-green, sweet/bland flavor, juicy and crisp flesh that resists browning, all-purpose but do lose some flavor when cooked, available September through June. Refrigerated storage time: 150 days.

• Granny Smith Apple7: Crisp, juicy, freckled green skin, sweetly tart flesh, excellent for hand-eating and cooking, grown in New Zealand, Australia, California and Arizona so usually available year-round. Refrigerated storage time: 240 days.

• Gravenstein Apple8: Crisp, juice, sweet-tart, green-skin streaked with red, all-purpose for cooking but not whole, available mainly on the U.S. West coast from August to late September.

• Jonathan Apple9: Spicy and fragrant, juicy, sweet-tart, all-purpose cooking except for whole, good for hand-eating, available September through February. Refrigerated storage time: 120 days.

• Lady Apple10: Tiny, ranging from brilliant red to yellow with red blushing, sweet-tart, good for hand-eating or cooking, available canned, used for garnishes, available fresh during winter months.

• Macoun Apple11: Small to medium-sized, wine red in color, crisp, juicy, sweet-tart, all-purpose but best for hand-eating, a U.S. East coast favorite.

• McIntosh Apple12: Medium-sized, crisp, tart-sweet, bright red skin sometimes tinged with green, all-purpose but doesn't hold up to lengthy cooking, discovered in the late 1700's by Canadian John McIntosh, available September through March.

• Northern Spy Apple13: Large, sweet-tart apple, red skin with yellow streaking, all-purpose, available October through March, also called spy apple.

• Pippin Apple14: All-purpose, good for hand-eating and cooking, greenish-yellow skin, juicy, crisp flesh, slightly tart, also called Newton pippin or yellow pippin, available winter through mid-spring.

• Red Delicious Apple15: Large, brilliant red, sometimes streaked with green, elongated shape with five distinctive knobs at its base, juicy, sweet, no distinguishable tartness, recommended for hand-eating but not for cooking, available from September through April. Refrigerated storage time: 160 days.

• Rhode Island Greening Apple16: Medium-sized, green to yellow in color, sweet-tart flavor which intensifies with cooking, good for hand-eating, mostly sold as a commercial crop for applesauce, pies etc., since both flavor and texture hold up well to heat, available October to April primarily in the eastern and central U.S. The western variant is known as Northwest Greening.

• Rome Beauty Apple17: Deep red skin with some yellow speckling, off-white flesh ranging from tender to mealy, mildly tart to sweet and bland, holds its shape well when cooked and as such is good for baked apples or cooked dishes, available November through May. Refrigerated storage time: 220 days.

• Stayman Apple18: Striped, dull red color, off-white flesh, juicy, crisp, tart, good for hand-eating and cooking, available from October to April.

• Winesap Apple19: Juicy, tart, crisp yellowish flesh with a deep red skin, all-purpose, stores well, available from November through May. Refrigerated storage time: 220 days.

• York Imperial Apple20: Medium to large in size, firm flesh, tartly sweet, red with yellowish streaks, off-white flesh, excellent for cooking whole as it keeps its shape, available October through April.

At least 55 million tons of apples were grown worldwide in 2005, with a value of about $10 billion. China produced about 35% of this total. The United States is the second-leading producer, with more than 7.5% of world production. Iran is third, followed by Turkey, Russia, Italy and India.
The center of diversity of the genus Malus is in eastern Turkey. The apple tree was perhaps the earliest tree to be cultivated, and its fruits have been improved through selection over thousands of years. Alexander the Great is credited with finding dwarfed apples in Kazakhstan in Asia in 328 BCE; those he brought back to Macedonia might have been the progenitors of dwarfing root stocks. Winter apples, picked in late autumn and stored just above freezing, have been an important food in Asia and Europe for millennia, as well as in Argentina and in the United States since the arrival of Europeans. Apples were brought to North America with colonists in the 17th century, and the first apple orchard on the North American continent was said to be near Boston in 1625. In the 20th century, irrigation projects in Washington state began and allowed the development of the multibillion dollar fruit industry, of which the apple is the leading species.

Until the 20th century, farmers stored apples in frostproof cellars during the winter for their own use or for sale. Improved transportation of fresh apples by train and road replaced the necessity for storage.
In the wild, apples grow quite readily from seeds. However, like most perennial fruits, apples are ordinarily propagated asexually by grafting. This is because seedling apples are an example of "extreme heterozygotes", in that rather than inheriting DNA from their parents to create a new apple with those characteristics, they are instead different from their parents, sometimes radically. Triploids have an additional reproductive barrier in that the 3 sets of chromosomes cannot be divided evenly during meiosis, yielding unequal segregation of the chromosomes (aneuploids). Even in the very unusual case when a triploid plant can produce a seed (apples are an example), it happens infrequently, and seedlings rarely survive. Most new apple cultivars originate as seedlings, which either arise by chance or are bred by deliberately crossing cultivars with promising characteristics. The words 'seedling', 'pippin', and 'kernel' in the name of an apple cultivar suggest that it originated as a seedling. Apples can also form bud sports (mutations on a single branch). Some bud sports turn out to be improved strains of the parent cultivar. Some differ sufficiently from the parent tree to be considered new cultivars.

Breeders can produce more rigid apples through crossing. For example, the Excelsior Experiment Station of the University of Minnesota has, since the 1930s, introduced a steady progression of important hardy apples that are widely grown, both commercially and by backyard orchardists, throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin. Its most important introductions have included 'Haralson' (which is the most widely cultivated apple in Minnesota), 'Wealthy', 'Honeygold', and 'Honeycrisp'.Apples have been acclimatized in Ecuador at very high altitudes, where they provide crops twice per year because of constant temperate conditions in a whole year.
Apples are self-incompatible; they must cross-pollinate to develop fruit. During the flowering each season, apple growers usually provide pollinators to carry the pollen. Honey bees are most commonly used. Orchard mason bees are also used as supplemental pollinators in commercial orchards. Bumblebee queens are sometimes present in orchards, but not usually in enough quantity to be significant pollinators.
Apples can be canned or juiced. They are milled to produce apple cider (non-alcoholic, sweet cider) and filtered for apple juice.

Apples are an important ingredient in many desserts, such as apple pie, apple crumble, apple crisp and apple cake. They are often eaten baked or stewed, and they can also be dried and eaten or reconstituted (soaked in water, alcohol or some other liquid) for later use. Puréed apples are generally known as apple sauce. Apples are also made into apple butter and apple jelly. They are also used (cooked) in meat dishes.
The proverb "An apple a day keeps the doctor away.", addressing the health effects of the fruit, dates from the 19th century Wales. Research suggests that apples may reduce the risk of colon cancer, prostate cancer and lung cancer. Compared to many other fruits and vegetables, apples contain relatively low amounts of vitamin C, but are a rich source of other antioxidant compounds. The fiber content, while less than in most other fruits, helps regulate bowel movements and may thus reduce the risk of colon cancer. They may also help with heart disease, weight loss, and controlling cholesterol. The fiber contained in apples reduces cholesterol by preventing reabsorpting, and (like most fruits and vegetables) they are bulky for their caloric content.