Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam Here. When you think of
Speaker 1: the word America, what specific symbols come to mind? The
Speaker 1: statue of Liberty, baseball burghers, world class albeit very expensive
Speaker 1: college degree. Those are all good guesses, but for a
Speaker 1: long time, a sweeter treat has represented the best and
Speaker 1: worst of the United States. Apple pie. If you're from
Speaker 1: around here, then it's a good bet that you've heard
Speaker 1: the oft recited phrase as American is apple pie. But
Speaker 1: what's the origin of this patriotic slogan. First, let's back
Speaker 1: up and look at how apples landed on America's shores.
Speaker 1: Apples had been cultivated around Europe and Asia for thousands
Speaker 1: of years, but when European colonists arrived in the America's
Speaker 1: they found only wild crab apples, small sour, dry apples
Speaker 1: that aren't good for eating. Unlike some other fruits, if
Speaker 1: you plant an apple seed, there's no guarantee that the
Speaker 1: resulting tree bear the same delicious fruit you ate. Apple
Speaker 1: trees tend to revert to their wild format. Grafting on
Speaker 1: branches from developed trees helps, and you also need pollinators
Speaker 1: like honey bees to grow the fruit. So although the
Speaker 1: original settlers of Jamestown brought apple seeds and seedlings with
Speaker 1: them from Europe and planted them in their new homeland,
Speaker 1: the first apples grown in America were mostly used for
Speaker 1: cider rather than dessert. Now let's talk pie. It was
Speaker 1: only with the availability of granulated sugar through slavery and
Speaker 1: trade that dessert pies, including apple pies, came into popularity
Speaker 1: in America. Despite the apple pies common association with American pride,
Speaker 1: Europeans had actually gotten the whole pie thing down centuries before.
Speaker 1: A recipe for Dutch apple pie can be traced back
Speaker 1: to fifteen fourteen, and the English were so enamored with
Speaker 1: apple pies in the late fifteen hundreds that they even
Speaker 1: came up with pie themed soliloquies. So who was responsible
Speaker 1: for impressing apples into the American mindset? That would be
Speaker 1: one John Chapman, also known by the more famous moniker
Speaker 1: of Johnny Appleseed. Contrary to popular belief, Appleseed was no
Speaker 1: mere American legend. He really did exist, and what's more,
Speaker 1: he planted apple nurseries around the turn of the nineteenth
Speaker 1: century throughout Ohio and other Midwestern states, and he sold
Speaker 1: them at a tidy profit. Appleseed also gave away countless
Speaker 1: more seedlings to pioneers who set up apple orchards across
Speaker 1: the nation. He became legendary because he mostly walked estimates say,
Speaker 1: somewhere around ten thousand miles over the course of his life,
Speaker 1: all barefoot and with nothing but a single knife for protection.
Speaker 1: He became a symbol of rugged individualism and frontier expansion,
Speaker 1: and in the years since the United States has developed
Speaker 1: a whole slew of truisms associated with apples, including an
Speaker 1: apple a day keeps the doctor away, and one bad
Speaker 1: apples spoils the bunch. The phrase American is apple pie
Speaker 1: popped up in print as early as nineteen the eight
Speaker 1: It was being used to describe lou Henry Hoover, the
Speaker 1: first lady of the Hoover Presidency, and what a good
Speaker 1: homemaker she was, But it wasn't until World War Two
Speaker 1: that apple pies really became stamped into the American consciousness
Speaker 1: as a patriotic pastry. By then, good apples had been
Speaker 1: common for a few generations, and the dish was thought
Speaker 1: of as homey and nostalgic, do perhaps to a popular
Speaker 1: song titled ma I Miss your apple Pie, published in
Speaker 1: nine and due to apple pie being the most frequently
Speaker 1: served dessert at American military posts during the war, it
Speaker 1: became a bit of a meme for American soldiers to
Speaker 1: tell reporters that they were fighting for mom and apple pie,
Speaker 1: and boom, the apple pie became American. Given apple pies
Speaker 1: strong associations with America, it's perhaps not surprising that it's
Speaker 1: not really a homegrown American product, but something baked overseas
Speaker 1: and brought to these shores. But since immigrants are a
Speaker 1: key component of the United States, there's perhaps no but
Speaker 1: a symbol of America than this delicious dessert. Today's episode
Speaker 1: was written by Terry yr Lagata and produced by Tyler Clain.
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio's How
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. For more in this and lots of other
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