This morning’s random object was a set of Apples from Safari, Ltd. I went through the history, science, and nature of their journey from roses to pies.
Sketch & Coffee, Live! is streamed daily at 5:30am, Texas Time, at the YouTubes
While I sketched, I talked about how apples are part of the rose family, tracing back around 50 million years. The fruit types split about 20 million years ago into drupes, agregate berries, and pomes. Crabapples split from pomes about 10 million years ago. While they are the ancestor of all of our modern apples, they also still grow wild.
Humans have been collecting those bitter little crabapples for at least 10,000 years, probably first for medicinal use, before cultivating sweeter apples about 6,000 years ago. As the Romans perfected grafting and spread orchards across Europe, a Roman named Mattianus grew such prized apples that his name became ubiquitous throughout the region for all apples, so much so that it is the origin for Spanish word for apple, manzana.
Apples show up in myths from the golden apples of the Hesperides to Idun’s apples of youth, Eve’s bite into knowledge, and in our own American folklore through Johnny Appleseed.
Today apples are everywhere, from Granny Smith pies to apple fritters. The U.S. grows about 10.5 billion pounds a year, though China dwarfs us, producing nearly half of the world’s apples. My mother says her Granny Smiths are magical, when my daughter shows up, they disappear from her counter and reappear as pie. That is the kind of magic I can believe in.
Click here to watch the Apples episode of Sketch & Coffee, Live!
Also, if you or a teacher friend would like a 20-30 minute lesson on apples, feel free to download and use this lesson plan:
Leave a Reply