Straight Dope 6/6/2023 - What did Johnny Appleseed actually do?

[Cecil_Adams]

@CalMeacham

@thorny_locust

I don’t get the impression that Pollan’s saying few of the apples could have been eaten fresh. I think he’s saying that in practice most of them were turned into cider.

No, he’s definitely claiming that the apples resulting from seed apples weren’t fir for eating, but had to be turned into cider to be useful.

I have Pollan’s book. Here’s what he says:

Anyone who wants edible apples plants grafted trees, for the fruit of seedling apples is almost always inedible - “sour enough,” Thoreau once wrote, “to set a squirrel’s teeth on edge and make a jay scream.” Thoreau claimed to like the taste of such apples, but most of his countrymen judged them good for little but hard cider - and hard cider was the fate of most apples grown in America up till Prohibition… Johnny Appleseed was bringing the gift of alcohol to the frontier.

Much of this is debatable to say the least. The last sentence strikes me as especially dubious.

@JKellyMap

Excellent column. Thanks.

My thanks for this and the many other kind words. I owe a shoutout to Sage_Rat for suggesting I look into the Johnny Appleseed story.

As may be evident from the fact that I posted the column on a Tuesday, producing these things on even a biweekly basis is proving to be challenging. Given that I have other commitments, will be taking time off for vacation, and sometimes just feel like loafing, let’s just say I’ll post columns from time to time.