Apples at Appleton Field Community Garden

We planted our Apple trees this Spring a beginning to fulfill our vision of creating a mini orchard of fruit and nut trees to create a space for visitors to harvest as well as supporting insect and bird habitat.The apple an iconic symbol of health: “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”, education: original knowledge from the Garden of Eden's tree of wisdom, a gift to your teacher, a leftover from the 1700’s when teachers were paid in food and housing, and as “American as Apple Pie “ an interesting promotional saying that came out of the WWII era in response to why our soldiers were fighting ..”for mom and apple pie” was their response…

Curious only that apples are not native to North America and were brought here in the

1600s with the European colonists mainly for food for livestock. The first official apple orchard was planted in 1625 in Boston by Reverend William Blaxton, apples were being used to make “safer to drink than water” apple brandy and cider. By the time the fabled Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman) arrived in the late 1770s he promoted to homesteaders to plant small apple orchards as food for themselves, trade and livestock feed.Apple orchards planting peaked in the 1800s with an estimated 14,000 varieties being used to make hard cider, fermented vinegars, sweeteners, baked goods and preserved as applesauce and apple butter and dried for winter.

By the 1920s commercialization of apple growing became possible with new irrigation capabilities and varieties of grafted trees picked for their taste and durability to be shipped. 

The US now grows around 2,500 varieties of apples…our choice is the variety Liberty,

planted for the future of our growing community.  

Sally Rossi Orman