Sunday, July 30, 2006

Yakima Washington Apples


An original Hill Top brand apple label from Yakima Washington. Nice cool colors mixed with red. Looks good framed, fir trees, snow capped mountains aprox 10 X 9 inches. Circa 1940-50s.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Appleton magazine

It was published by D. Appleton & Co. beginning in the year 1900. Obviously named for it's publisher this slightly ego-satisfying periodical ran for less than a decade. Issues are understabdably rare. It retailed for 15 cents; that's about $3.00 in todays dollars.

It was Mr. Appletons second atempt at printed gratification via an eponymus logo. His first attempt, "Appleton's Journal" was Printed 1869 – Dec-1881 in the UK. It actually ran as a weekly 3-Apr-1869 – 26-Jun-1876 after which it became a monthly.

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Songs of Songs 7:8

Apples appear three times in the bible.

Songs of Songs 7:8 I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Apple weevil

Adult: 4.5 to 5.0 mm long.
Body: black-brown coat, yellowy body.
Host plant: apple.
Mean fecundity: 25 eggs in 4 to 5 weeks.
Egg: time until hatching, 4 to 12 days.
Larva: developmental duration, 3 weeks.



Since the larva feeds on the plant's reproductive parts, does not open and takes on a "clove-like" appearance (capped blossom). If bud-bursting is slow (cold spring), the apple weevil can lay alits eggs in buds at the prefered stage. In this case, the damage is much more serious. In years when apple bossom is abundantputs out abundant flowers, the damage done is limited and the weevil even acts as natural, and beneficial, "thinner" (apple blossom is abundant once every two years). A close watch should be kept on apple trees close to woods or abandoned orchards.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

The battle of the orchards


During World War II students at Central Washington College of Education (now Central Washington University) helped harvest fruit during war related labor shortages. Samuel R. Mohler's The First 75 Years: A History of Central Washington State College states:


"Because of the labor shortage in the apple orchards of the region in the fall of 1942, students voted by an overwhelming majority to close school for three days. Of 540 students and faculty, 375 volunteered for the 'battle of the orchards' and were sent where most needed, principally to the areas near Chelan, Yakima, Okanogan, and Ellensburg. Altogether they picked nearly 36,000 boxes of apples worth almost $60,000, most of which would otherwise have been lost, since cold weather came early that year. The next year college classes began a week early so that the apple harvest holiday would not take school time"

http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=7554

It was not the first "battle" so named. In 1862, the Third Brigade, familiarly known as the Jersey Brigade, fought a seven day "battle of the Orchards" near albany under a Colonel Carr.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Halcyon Days




"As the days take on a mellower light, and the apple at last hangs really finish'd and indolent-ripe on the tree,Then for the teeming quietest, happiest days of all!The brooding and blissful halcyon days."

-Walt Whitman, Halcyon Days

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Arkansas Apple Festival

Lincoln is a small town lying 20 miles southwest of Fayetteville on U.S. Highway 62, and about 8 miles from the border of Oklahoma. The roots of Lincoln are historically tangled with the roots of the apple trees that fostered it. In other words, Apples made the town.
W. G. Vincenheller was the first big-time apple-buyer in this part of the state and was not only the Director of the Experiment Station, but also president of the Arkansas State Horticultural Society. He built a cold storage plant on the old Mark Bean Farm with walls three feet thick.
Apples were either dried in a fruit evaporato,r barreled and shopped by railroad or peddled out west. http://www.arkansasapplefestival.org

Sacks of dried fruit were loaded on wagons, the children sat on top, and the whole family got to go to town that fall. Thee sales of apples were depended upon to clothe the family and provide most of the commodities for another year. It was a staple food, but also a staple crop not unlike cotton.

On our nations bicentennial Lincoln decided to begin annually celebrating the fruit that founded their town. It was an easy decision to make. Activities include an apple core throwing contest, a beauty pagent, live dulcimer music and of course local apples.

Friday, July 14, 2006

The Crazy Apple

Scientific Name: European Mandrake

Other Names: Atropa mandragora, Dudaim, Herb of Circe, Majnoon, Mandragora, Mandragora officinalis, Mandragora vernalis, Mandrake, Pome Di Tchin, Satan's Apple, Sorcerer's Root, True Mandrake, Witch's Manikin ...Crazy Apple


European mandrake contains several chemicals, including atropine, hyoscyamine, and scopolamine, from a group known as tropane alkaloids. These alkaloids have narrow therapeutic ranges, which means that a very small decrease in the dose could make the drug utterly ineffective, and that a small increase could raise the risk of side effects. This can in clude paralysis among other nasties.

I.E. a potentially harmful dose is not much higher than an effective dose.

Historically, a major use of European mandrake has been to treat asthma and other breathing problems. The alkaloids in European mandrake are thought to reduce secretions in all parts of the body, including the lungs. One possible result is that lung congestion may be lessened. Additionally, the tropane alkaloid component may relax muscles in the bronchial tubes, making breathing easier. Although newer prescription medicines use different kinds of chemicals, alkaloids similar to those found in European mandrake were formerly used in prescription medicines to treat asthma. Those drugs have mostly been replaced with safer and more effective products.

Legend and superstition surround the mandrake. The root of the mandrake has a peculiar shape, resembling human limbs or even a complete body. The strange shape of the mandrake’s root contributed to its reputation as a magical, and dangerous, plant. Many people believed that the mandrake root screamed as it was pulled from the ground. To dig up the mandrake and hear its cries meant certain death, so ancient herbalists instructed people to tie a dog to the mandrake and force the animal to pull it up, thereby killing the dog and saving themselves.

more Here

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Then your apples all is gethered

The apple reference is fleeting. But the idea of completion, of rest following the harvest is not.
The notion lingers, fully engorged in that single phrase "your apples all is gethered"

When the Frost Is On The Punkin
by James Whitcomb Riley

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin' turkey-cock,
And the clackin' of the guineys, and the cluckin' of the hens,
And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;

O, it's then's the times a feller is a-feelin' at his best,
With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

They's something kindo' harty-like about the atmusfere
When the heat of summer's over and the coolin' fall is here --
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossums on the trees,
And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees;

But the air's so appetizin'; and the landscape through the haze
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock --
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
And the raspin' of the tangled leaves, as golden as the morn;
The stubble in the furries -- kindo' lonesome-like, but still
A-preachin' sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;

The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
The hosses in theyr stalls below -- the clover over-head!
-- O, it sets my hart a-clickin' like the tickin' of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock!

Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps
Is poured around the celler-floor in red and yeller heaps;
And your cider-makin' 's over, and your wimmern-folks is through
With their mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and saussage, too! ...

I don't know how to tell it -- but ef sich a thing could be
As the Angels wantin' boardin', and they'd call around on me --
I'd want to 'commodate 'em -- all the whole-indurin' flock --
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock!

Monday, July 10, 2006

Red Apple Diner

Red Apple Diner, Ridgefield Park, NJ

Is it still there? I have no idea. But to be sure, they had the right idea.

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Scrumpy Jack

Cider was once more popular than water in all western nations. Today it remains that way in the UK. but has sadly fallen in popularity in the U.S. It's universal appeal wasn't just constant drunkeness, it was the dirty local water. Booze was safer to drink than water due to wide spread contamination by human or animal faeces or urine containing pathogenic bacteria or viruses; include cholera, typhoid, amoebic and bacillary dysentery. I'd drink cider too.

Capitol Apples


Sadly our capitol was never known for its apples.

Friday, July 07, 2006

Apple perfume


It has been attempted many times.

I can name a few here:
AVON Royal Apple Bird of Paradise Cologne
Annick Goutal Parfum
Sentier Apple Cider Parfum
ätherisches Parfum-Oel
Restposeten Eau de Parfum - aepl
dura parfum maisong de apple
DKNY Be Delicious
Bleikristall Apfel Parfum

and many many others. None compare to the complexity of the fruit itself of course.

Monday, July 03, 2006

Otomo Katsuhiso's Apple Paradise


Who is Otomo Katsuhiso and what is apple paradise?

The hell if I know. But it has soething to do with a hippo walking upright like a man. Is it post-surrealism? is it anime? manga? Otomo also lent his sweat and ink to the much more famed Akira series. His themes are post-apocalyptic and dark. His world is a future Japan as a post-nuclear totalitarian state. It is said this came as a result of his exposure to the French author Mebius.

i can find nothing about this online written in english. If you do know, feel free to enlighten me.