Apples have been used to symbolise human emotions and temptations through religion, mythology and

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folktales. Love, beauty, health, sexuality, pleasure and wealth have all been linked to apples. Eve’s apple was Adam’s temptation and Sir Isaac Newton understood gravitation after watching an apple fall from a tree. With these wide-ranging stories of legend, myth and imagination, it appears that man's fascination with apples extends far beyond the many varieties and uses that surround this fascinating fruit.

Apples — scientific name being Malus domestica — are members of the rose family that have five flowers with five petals and five sepals. Believe it or not, but her cousins include peaches, plums, pears, almonds, raspberries, strawberries, cherries and apricots. It is believed that the apple tree was the first fruit tree to be cultivated and was first domesticated and made edible by the Chinese process of grafting about 4,000 years ago.

Some historians, however, believe that the Romans were the first to plant and harvest the fruit, although its origins are traced to southwestern Asia, between the Caspian and the Black Sea. Without the process of domestication, apples would have remained inedible — sour and filled mostly with seeds — like its wild ancestors from ancient Asia and Europe.

In the early 1600s, when colonists came to America, they found crabapple trees growing in the wild. They sent for seeds and cuttings from English apples along with bees for pollination. Planting apple orchards became very important and many new uses for them were discovered. Colonists found ways to dry apples to preserve them and methods to make apple butter and apple pies.

Apples provided juice, cider, vinegar and food for their animals and as old trees were chopped down, the wood was used for making toys and furniture and burned for warmth. Today, apples are still one of the largest cultivated fruits in the world. In the United States, 35 states produce apples with an estimated worth of $1.76 billion.

Kashmir produces the maximum quantity of apples followed by Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal. Harvesting begins in mid-August for late summer varieties and continues throughout October, which is the national apple month. Unfortunately, apples cultivation is at a risk because of global warming. It is important for an apple plant to have snow or frost on the ground for about 100 days during the winters. Apples are an important source of employment in the hilly regions and the economy of these areas depends on them.

Apples are very nutritious and have a lot of fibre, vitamins, iron and other good qualities. No wonder they say ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’!