In England apples were grown everywhere and had been there so long that Englishman considered them as native to their island.
Finding no apples in America, early settlers quickly remedied the situation by planting apple seeds brought from England.
Before the arrival of settles from Europe, Native Americans commonly gathered raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries that grew will in openings in the forest.
Apples came to North America with the colonists in the 1600s, and the first apple orchard on this continent is said to have been located near Boston in 1625.
Apples were the fruits most commonly grown in the colonies. It was grown chiefly for cider, which was a common drink of rich and poor, used for farmers’ own consumption and for sale, trade and export.
A 1666 English settlers in North Carolina’s Cape Fear River was described as growing ‘apples, pears and other English fruits…..out of planted kernels’.
Anglican clergyman William Blaxton apparently raised the first American variety of apple-the Yellow Sweeting- on Beacon Hill in Boston about 1640.
From New England origins, apples, moved west with pioneers John Chapman (alias Johnny Appleseed), and missionaries during the 1700s and 1800s.
In 1900s, irrigation projects in Washington State began and allowed the development of the multibillion dollar fruit industry, of which the apple is the leading species.
The oldest apple variety surviving today is probably the Pomme d’Api, a small yellow or red fruit that originated in ancient Rome, known today in North America as the Lady or Christmas Apple.
History of Apples in United States
