All About Apples and Apple Cider!

The Pilgrims from Europe brought apple trees to the U.S. Today, the country with the most apple trees is China. Apple trees don't start producing fruit until they are about five years old, but trees often live to their 100th birthday. It's a lot of work to pick apples. Each apple has to be picked by hand during harvest time. Once they are picked, apples are used for a lot of different purposes. Some are eaten just as they are, but others are used to make other products. After all, who doesn't love apple juice, apple cider, apple sauce, or apple pie? Some of these items take a lot of apples to make! Just one gallon of cider uses more than 35 apples!

When most people think of apples, they think of bright red fruit. Apples come in different colors. There are actually more than 7,500 types of apples grown all over the world. More than 2,500 varieties of apples are grown in the United States alone! Apples can be red, pink, green, or yellow. Different types of apples taste differently. There are apples that are very sweet and some are quite tart. Some varieties are crunchy, while other varieties are juicier. Apples can be so different from each other that some types of apples are used for different recipes than others. Apples like Granny Smith, Red Delicious, and Fuji are what bakers love to use in pies and other treats. Apple sauce is usually made out of Jonathan, Winesap, and McIntosh varieties. Cider makers prefer to use Pippin and Gala apples.

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Without apple trees, there would be no apples! All apple trees have two things in common. The first thing is they need a lot of sun. The second is that no tree can make apples alone. For most species of apple trees, at least two trees have to be planted near each other in order for a tree to produce fruit. Not only that, but many of them have to cross-pollinate which means they must get pollen from another fruit tree species! Different kinds of apple trees do better in different climates. Trees that grow well in the southeastern part of the United States won't do as well in northern states. Some types of trees are ready for harvest in July, while other kinds aren't ready until very late in the fall.

It takes two trees to produce fruit, but guess how many trees it takes to make an apple orchard? The answer is five! The first apple orchard in the United States was planted outside of Boston, Massachusetts in 1625. Today, there are more than 7,500 orchards, found in every state. Visiting orchards is a popular harvest-time activity for kids and families. At many orchards, you have the chance to pick your own apples.

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Many orchards that are open to the public are run by people who make apple cider. Apples, spices, and brown sugar are added to a pot along with water. It's important not to peel the apples because a lot of flavor comes from the peel. The pot is brought to a boil, and then the heat is turned down so that the water just barely bubbles. The cider is left to cook for around two hours. The entire mixture is pressed and mashed and then it cooks for about another hour. The pot is removed from heat and everything goes through a metal strainer so that the solid bits of apple and spices stay in the strainer while the rest goes into bottles to be sold.

Cider isn't the only fun thing to do with apples. Apple roses can be made by slicing them super thin, boiling with sugar, and then rolled up and put on top of sweet pastries. Apple bobbing is such an old game that Pilgrim children probably played it. Apples are floated in a large tub of water and kids have to get the apples out using their mouths only. Another fun game is to have an adult carve an apple into a puzzle. They will cut the apple into interesting shapes and kids can set the pieces back together to form the apple again.

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