Apples – Eve, Aphrodite and Granny Smith

It has been a good year for apples; people who never had an apple, including myself, have apples this time. It will be a record tart and apple jelly season… and maybe some experimentation with brewing a drop of cider.

What is it about the apple that allows it to hold such a princely position in our lives? Our religion, our folklore, even our fairy stories, all feature the apple in some form or another and it invariably appears as a sweet and precious thing.

Ancient Kazakhstan 

The apple originated in the wild forests of ancient Kazakhstan (hence the former name of its former capital city Alma-ata, meaning father of apples), and there is evidence of cultivation and widespread use dating back thousands of years in Mesopotamia and the Near East.

The apple was a great find for the people who hunted and gathered. Few fruits have so much nice stuff surrounding their small seeds. I imagine when God made little green apples he had the wild pig in mind; gulp down the sweet pulp, leave the small seeds unscathed and when they eventually come out the other end, they land on the ground in a readymade pile of fertiliser. Could an apple seedling ask for more?

Apples were domesticated when human migration began to cross breed different wild apple varieties, creating more desirable hybrids bearing larger fruit. Humans then cultivated these improved varieties in a process of selective breeding that continues to develop apples to this day.

When a bee is gathering nectar from apple blossoms, he cares little what variety of apple tree he mixes with, and this results in continuous cross pollination and the production on ‘mongrel’ seeds. The Granny Smith, that we know and love today, was developed in this way in Australia in 1868. It is named after Maria Ann Smith, who propagated the well-known favourite from a chance seedling. The tree is thought to be a hybrid of the European wild apple, crossed with a domesticated variety.

Since apple seeds do not breed true, gardeners developed the practice of ‘grafting’. This involves taking cuttings from a desirable tree and attaching them to rootstock, which ensures the resulting tree and fruit will be true to the parent tree.

Forbidden Fruit 

In many religions, ‘forbidden fruit’ is a name given to the fruit growing in the Garden of Eden that God commands mankind not to eat. In the Bible, Genesis 2:16–17, Adam and Eve disobey God and commit original sin by eating the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. As a result, they are exiled from Eden. 

A quick look in search of that forbidden fruit, and how it became central to the lives of Adam and Eve, throws up an interesting finding. It seems the Bible story never actually mentions an apple at all. The following information may explain how the apple got involved.

Early Christian art depicts the Fall of Man by a fig. Christianity likely introduced the idea of the fruit being an apple, in recollection of the 'apple of paradise' or when the Bible was translated. In Latin, evil is malum and an apple is called malus.

While the exact identification of the biblical fruit might be in question as a metaphor (was it really an apple or a banana or a fig?), the phrase typically refers to any indulgence or pleasure that is considered illegal or immoral. So, it’s not that the fruit is bad as such, it’s just more of an indulgence that should be avoided, like chocolate during Lent.

Poor Eve came badly out of it all, worse even than the serpent. She got blamed for everything. If her case was to be taken up by a latter-day spin company, they would surely say that she was the first messenger to be shot. There was no word about the snake that sold her the lie in the first place, or the partner who took the bait because he thought it would make him a better man. The fruit, meanwhile, escaped with its reputation intact.

Mythology 

Apples appear throughout mythology as symbols of love, wisdom, and immortality. In Greek mythology, apples are associated with the goddess Aphrodite, the goddess of love. In Greek mythology also, throwing an apple was a gesture of romantic intent. So long as one doesn’t get hit on the temple, that gesture might still work if you have an eye for that special someone.

Ariella Daly, a beekeeper and story teller, in a piece, Fruit of the Otherworld, tells us something of the apple as it features in Irish mythology.

In Irish folklore, the Wild Apple was a sacred chieftain tree, and to cut it down without permission engendered a hefty penalty. It was often associated with the Otherworld and apples were commonly found buried with the dead. The Otherworld, however, is more than the place of the dead, it also represents the land of the fairy folk.

In one Irish myth, a fairy maiden falls in love with a mortal and sings her love to him. She is chased off by his father’s men, but before she departs, she throws him an apple. The apple is fairy food and is ever-renewing. The fruit alone sustains the mortal for a year, until she returns on her crystal ship and they sail to the Otherworld together.

To this day, water diviners often favour a forked twig from an apple tree to help them discover hidden water sources. The diviner holds the forked end of a freshly cut apple branch in both hands and, as if by magic, walking over the ground, the apple twig indicates the presence of water.

Irish Pitcher 

Heritage apples are older, traditional varieties that existed before modern hybrids. These apples, often distinguishable by their unique flavours and history, still survive in old cottage gardens and are also preserved by specialist nurseries dedicated to maintaining genetic diversity. They are made up of thousands of varieties with diverse uses such as eating, cooking, and cider making. Examples include the American-developed Arkansas Black and the English Ashmead's Kernel, alongside numerous Irish varieties.

Irish heritage apple varieties include varieties such as Irish Peach, Ardcairn Russet, and Kilkenny Pearmain. The most notable heritage apple from the Sligo/Mayo region is the Irish Pitcher. This large, juicy, and crunchy dessert apple, known for its good flavour, is well-adapted to wetter climates; it flowers late, and is suitable for both eating and cooking.

Heritage apples, often adapted to Ireland's specific climate, are unique because they were developed or discovered locally. Many of these have been preserved in recent years by organisations such as the Irish Seed Savers, whose mission is to protect Ireland's rich orchard history and biodiversity. When it comes to heritage apples, Seed Savers are the last word.

With over 180 varieties of Irish heritage apple trees, we are also Ireland’s leading cultivator of certified organic heritage apple trees. Each year we grow a wide range of varieties and make them available to the public as bare root and potted trees.