Anyway, continuing on with Pollan's chapter on the apple.
More than the topic of the apple themselves I found the history, and politics behind 'changing' the history, of 'Johnny Appleseed' really interesting. Besides the fact that the only times I've ever heard the name 'Johnny Appleseed' was while volunteering at a camp and kids had to sing the song before getting food, I've never given much thought to the story behind it.
Just as Pollan mentions the chapter, the story most people know - the story I know - is that he planted the apples as a food source; but the story Pollan traces is so much more interesting than that! Maybe its just me being naive, but I would have never thought that the apples were primarily used for apple cider.
It tickled me pink reading about how, during the years of Prohibition, the 'apple' was essentially a thing over which the people warred over. That said, John Chapman's (Appleseed) biography is a far cry from the Disney-fied story (which I don't know about the rest of you, but I didn't even know there was a movie).
"Sweetness is a desire that starts on the tongue with the sense of taste (Pollan p.17)."
Maybe I'm just a brat because I plant a lot of fruits and veggies in my yard, but whenever Pollan mentions the details in which plants (and I guess meats too) are changed to become supermarket approved, I really start to think about those foods. In terms of apples, I've never realized this before - but after dwelling on it - I realize that, unless I'm forced to, I don't eat fruit bought from the supermarket.
I pig out on fruits during the summer and fall, but rarely do I eat any fruit during the rest of the year (I'm actually surprised I don't have scurvy) - and I say this while eating chocolate rather than the fruit that's in the fruit bowl. I know that what's in the store is in a way a symbol of our control - the perfect, uniform sizes, the skins waxed and without blemish - but honestly, the only apples I eat are full of worm holes (so I am never without a knife when eating apples), and have bruises (and really, why wouldn't you eat the bruised part? its like eating apple sauce without the effort of having to make it).
Have you ever ate a handful of cherries with miniature little holes in them. Then realize after you've had over 50 that all of them had 2 white worms in them. Once you see the first one, you open every single one after and realize you’re not going to find on without a worm. It could just be the way our civilization has been developed, but let’s just say thinking about it now makes my stomach churn.
ReplyDeleteI guess that’s what I think of when you mention eating that bruised apple of yours with a knife.