WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Johnny Appleseed 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.160 Hey there, and welcome to short stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck, 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:12.079 there's Jerry. Let's get to it. I thought this is 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:17.640 an interesting pick from you, and I salute you because, um, well, 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:20.520 I mean I'm I'm literally saluting you. I see my hand. 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:23.200 I'm pretty good at it too. You really are, like 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:25.440 how high and tight that is you? And you did 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:28.880 like the little snap where you're hand kind of reverberates, 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:31.920 you know. Oh I hate a lazy salute, so uh yeah, 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:34.239 I salute you because this is um people think of 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:36.840 they hear the words Johnny Appleseed, they hear that name 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:39.919 and immediately they think of the Disney version, or they 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:44.880 think of folk tale. But Johnny Appleseed was a real 0:00:44.960 --> 0:00:49.680 dude named John Chapman who planted apple trees. Yeah. It's 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:53.519 one of those amazing, awesome myths that turns out to 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:57.720 be virtually accurate. Yeah, so it's not a myth at all. No, 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:00.240 not really. I mean, there's only like some stuff about 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:04.280 about that legend that are that is somewhat mythical, but 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:06.440 really most of it's pretty accurate. It's not like he 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:09.000 had like a giant ox or anything that followed him 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:12.840 around that was blue. He was basically I think the 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:16.880 thing right, the thing that um that that people usually 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:20.880 get wrong in the retelling with with Johnny Appleseed is 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:23.560 that he was basically like the world's first flower child, 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:26.600 and that he was just basically like kind of trapesing 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:29.920 along the frontier at the turn of the from the 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:33.280 eighteenth of the nineteenth century, planting trees just because he 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:37.959 loved nature. That is not correct. Necessarily, this guy did 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:41.440 love nature. He's a businessman, he was. He was. He 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:45.000 did this four like out of a business a sense 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:49.880 of business, for sure, but he was not like any 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:53.960 kind of um, hard nosed, hard hitting, like I'll come 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:56.000 to your house and break your legs kind of businessman. 0:01:56.120 --> 0:02:00.080 He would never double cross anybody or do something in 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:03.120 business that would make someone else suffer. He apparently was 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:06.920 well known for never ever reminding someone that they owed 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:10.280 a debt. He believed that the he believed the good 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:12.920 Lord would tell that person you need to go Paige, 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:15.440 Johnny apples He because you owe him some money, and 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:18.359 it really didn't matter anyway if you bothered him, because 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:20.880 they knew that they owed the debt. And who was 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:23.119 he to go bug somebody and make him feel down 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:25.720 you never knew someone was going through. So he was 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:28.600 that kind of business man. And yet even with that mentality, 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:31.640 even with that attitude, he had everything he needed in 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:35.960 life and more which was not necessarily substantial, because he 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:38.160 used to sleep on a bed of leaves and little 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:41.800 twig huts that he made of his own construction on 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:46.320 the frontier. Well, let's talk about apples for a second. Um. Apples, 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:49.320 as far as we know, started out in what we 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:53.960 would call Kazakhstan today. They gained a lot of popularity 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:57.760 in Rome because they grafted apples and a lot of 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:00.440 fruit trees. If you want them to grow and fruit 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:03.040 like you are accustomed to, or like you want them to, 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:06.359 you don't plan from seed. You you graph them, which 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:09.000 is when you take a stem with a bud on 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:15.240 it and through magic, not technique as a gardener, but 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:19.680 through magic you uh graph that onto another tree instead 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:22.480 of planting from seed, uh and you would get a 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:27.040 more reliable outcome, especially in the case of apples, because 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:30.720 apparently growing apples from seed. If you have a wonderful, red, 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:33.639 delicious apple and you go spit a seed out into 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:36.400 the ground, your it might grow into something and maybe 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:39.400 I mean, obviously an apple tree, but it probably will 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:42.400 not be a red delicious apple that you can eat. No, 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:45.960 there were called spitters. Apples grown from seed were called 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:49.280 spitters at least scoring. According to this um the Smithsonian 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:53.800 article that we found um because they are way, way 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:56.839 sour like. Apples did not used to be like what 0:03:56.880 --> 0:03:59.840 we think of apples today. They were very, very sour, 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:03.160 at least the one's grown from seeds. There were sour um, 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:06.320 and Henry David Thoraux said, did I mention they were sour? 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:10.200 Henry David thoros said that they would put a squirrels 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:14.160 teeth on edge. It's pretty sour. That's super sour. And 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:16.960 I love the way you put it so folksy. And 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:19.159 now he was a proto hippie, I'll tell you that. 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:22.640 But this these were the trees that Johnny apple Seed 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:25.520 was planning. He was planning them from seed um, not 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:28.840 from grafting. And apparently one reason why he planted them 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:31.960 from from seed and not grafting was because he was 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:36.760 a member of the sweden Borgian church Work Work Work, 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:41.400 which UM which kind of held that plants could feel uh, 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:46.440 and therefore grafting was inherently cruel because it could conceivably 0:04:46.480 --> 0:04:50.280 create suffering in the plants. So he grew from seed. Alright, 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:53.520 let's take a break. Oh wow, and we'll we'll come 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:57.359 back and we'll talk about why John Chapman wanted to 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:00.200 plant all these apples to begin with from seed right 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:20.120 after this. All right, So Mr Chapman was from Ohio, 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:23.520 and uh, it's it's funny. We don't know a lot 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:26.039 about his early years. He was born in actually born 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:28.880 in Massachusetts, but kind of lived his life in Ohio, 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:32.520 I think, uh for the most part, and which was 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:35.719 the west at the time, which is funny. And said, 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:40.280 all right, here's the deal. The Ohio company associate said, 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:42.640 all right, you want to go out west and settle. 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:47.479 If you want to form a permanent homestead beyond Ohio, 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:49.800 then you can get it. You can get a hundred acres. 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:52.479 But what you have to do, though, is you have 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:55.520 to plant fifty apple trees and twenty peach trees in 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:59.839 three years. Um. I guess it's an incentive to make 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:03.559 the land rich with with plants. Well, also to show 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:06.200 that you planned to be there in a few years 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:08.560 when these things started bearing fruit. It was it was 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:12.120 a way to show that you meant to settle there permanently. 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:14.600 I guess, well, yeah, but it was it's not like 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:17.599 build a house. I mean it it had an agricultural benefit. 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:19.840 I see what you mean. Yeah, I guess that would 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:23.039 have been part of it then too. Yeah. So he says, 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:26.039 all right, he sees a business opportunity, and he's like, 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:29.200 if I can start heading west from Pennsylvania and I 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:32.760 can get just ahead of these settlers and plant these things, 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:35.160 like claim this land and plant these trees and these orchards, 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:37.440 then I can turn around and sell them at a 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:42.240 much higher value. Yeah, because he improved the land. He 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:45.919 was the first squatter kind of in a way, I guess. 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:47.960 But the other thing that I saw he did too 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:51.800 was he would establish nurseries in the area as well. 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:54.960 So if if you didn't buy attractive land that he 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:57.920 had already developed, you could also still just come and 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:01.160 buy his trees from him. Um. And he did this 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:05.760 for decades, going up and down the frontier, because the 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:10.000 frontier kept kept growing further and further west. And at first, 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:12.720 I mean when he when he first embarked out, and 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:16.400 I mean we're talking Ohio. Ohio was the frontier there 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:20.160 was there was no United States beyond that. I don't 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:23.480 think Ohio was even a state quite yet. So he's 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:27.640 walking up and down these unsettled lands, um like growing 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:31.800 these orchids, planning apple trees, and then also creating nurseries. 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:35.280 But at the same time too, he was also serving 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:40.880 as a liaison between these incoming settlers and the Native 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:44.240 Americans who know now suddenly had neighbors, whether they wanted 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:47.960 them or not. UM And he apparently uh spent a 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:52.040 lot of time learning the languages of the different tribes 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:55.320 that he encountered, and they grew to trust him, and 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:59.080 so he became an advocate for the settlers, but also 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:02.840 was able to advocate for the Native Americans too. He 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:04.760 was just that kind of a guy. He was that 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:07.200 he was that that's kind of the cut the cloth 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:09.360 he was cut from. I bet he put his mouth 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:12.880 around a piece piper too, speaking of one of the 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:16.120 first hippies. Uh, all right, So he's going around, he's 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:19.280 planting all these apple orchards and I guess presumably peach 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:22.000 because he was required to. But he's not known as 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:28.040 Johnny Peachtree. No, just apple seed or peach seed, I guess. Uh. 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:30.440 And he Here's the thing though, with these apples, like 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:33.680 we said, because he's planning them from seed only and 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:38.120 not grafting them. It's pretty wild, like it's like the 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:40.400 wild West. Apple wise, you don't know what's gonna come up. 0:08:40.960 --> 0:08:43.160 Um many times, like you said, they're much too sour 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:45.920 to eat, But what they weren't too sour for is 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:48.760 to make booze out of them in the form of cider. 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:53.440 And cider was a big, big part of frontier life. 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:57.160 Like they drank it. It's apparently, um New Englanders that 0:08:57.240 --> 0:09:01.280 transplanted out on the western edges of Ohio would drink 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:04.400 close to eleven ounces of hard cider per day. And 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:06.920 it was a time when water quality was suspect, and 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.240 you knew you could count on that cider, right because 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:13.160 I mean it's alcoholic, so it's fermented, which means that 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:16.000 any harmful bacteria has been killed. It can't really survive 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:19.040 in an alcoholic drink, right, It's wonderful, So they would 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:21.800 drink cider instead of water, which, by the way, eleven 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:24.800 ounces is it's like a bottle of cider today. No 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:27.800 it's not not too much, No it's not. But everyone 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:30.720 drank it every day. Instead of water. So there was 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:33.240 you know, a certain amount of buds going on, I'm sure, 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:38.120 and who knows what the alcoholic content of the cider, right, 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:41.320 but that was I mean, that was what apples were 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:44.560 used for. Um. I think Michael Pollan said that up 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:48.679 until prohibition, an apple in the United States had a 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:51.360 much greater chance of being turned into hard cider than 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:53.520 it did it just being eaten. And again it was 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:57.000 because most apples in the US were grown from seed, 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:00.160 meaning they were sour, meaning they were much better or 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:03.320 for cider than they were for eating, right, And that's 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:07.319 how it was again up until prohibition. And one of 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:10.160 the reasons why cider just kind of went away is 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:13.679 because prohibition. Apparently the Feds used to chop down apple 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:16.520 trees where they saw him to kind of say, no, 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:19.000 you're not gonna make any cider out of this, you 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:21.800 hay seed hick. You got it. I'm gonna cut down 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:25.199 this tree right in front of your face, right exactly. Uh. 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:28.280 You like cider, Yeah, I love it? Yeah, Yeah, it's 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:32.280 great stuff. Um. My initial introduction to cider was you know, 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:36.160 really sweet, like I guess the first wave of the resurgence, 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:38.320 like back in college in those days, what was the 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:41.680 one that everyone drank would chuck? Yeah, that was it. Yeah, 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:44.480 it was basically the zema of cider, at least back then. 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:46.040 I haven't had it in a while, so maybe they 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:49.720 kind of I don't know, so that's what I'm saying. 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:53.080 They may have toned it down just regular hard cider. 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:55.840 Oh yes, And it's not supposed to be it's it 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:57.560 was never supposed to be sweet. That was just a 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:00.240 weird anomally. So I think the cider now is much 0:11:00.360 --> 0:11:04.480 closer to the traditional citer, which is it's it's got 0:11:04.559 --> 0:11:07.480 like a deadbit of sweetness to it, but it's it's 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:12.680 definitely a lot more um beery than than apple juicy. 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:14.520 I'm gonna have to dip my toe in the cider 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:17.160 pond once again. Do not do that, Just drink it. 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:20.040 Uh what else we have? Do we have anything else? 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:25.560 In this guy? Johnny Appleseed? Um No, I think I 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:28.120 mentioned he was a sweet businessman. He was a friend 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:31.599 to the Native American and the European settler check and 0:11:31.760 --> 0:11:36.160 check he uh oh. There's supposedly a tree in Nova, 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:39.839 Ohio on a farm. It's a hundred and seventy five 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:42.800 year old tree, and some people believe that it is 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:47.080 the last remaining tree that can be found that Johnny 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:50.760 Chapman a k a. Johnny Appleseed actually planted, because again 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:55.600 the prohibition federalis chopped all his other stuff down. So 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:59.719 that's Johnny Appleseed. Everybody, Drink it up. If you want 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:01.960 to get in touch with us, send us an email. 0:12:02.240 --> 0:12:04.439 You can do worse than that. 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