www.tribuneindia.com | HimachalPlus Wednesday, August 11, 2010, Chandigarh, India

by Shriniwas Joshi

Himachal is known as ‘the apple state’. The apple came here in 1870 when Captain Lee raised an orchard at Bandrol village in the Kullu valley. It was followed by Col Roreich, Captain Bannon and Johnson, who brought up orchards at Naggar, Raison and Manali, respectively. Alexander Coots, in 1887, nurtured ‘Hillock Head’, an apple orchard on the exotic varieties, at Mashobra in Shimla district. Samuel Nicholas Stokes, later Satyanand Stokes, a resident of Philadelphia (USA), raised a delicious variety of apples at Kotgarh in 1918. Maharishi Charak has mentioned it as sinchitphalaka in his treatise in the 2nd Century and in about 1100 AD. Dalhana describes ‘a ber as big as a fist and very sweet’ grown in the northern region of Kashmir, which suggests of an apple.

Amir Khusrau speaks of apple in about 1300 AD, which was given attention to by the Mughals.

Apple to India, therefore, is not a gift of the West as is generally believed. I also want to break another myth that apple was the fruit of Eve’s temptation in the Garden of Eden. It may or may not, because the Bible says, “(she took) the fruit of the tree which was in the midst of the garden”. Even the Adam’s apple in every man’s throat signifies the piece of forbidden fruit (not apple surely) stuck in Adam’s throat.

The names of Himachali apples have a foreign touch. The first and the costliest are the delicious varieties – red, royal and richard. Red was earlier called Hawkeye but when Stark nurseries of the USA bought it from the farmer Jesse Hiatt of Iowa state, it was named red delicious. Baldwin with reddish skin grows in Kullu and is slightly sour. It is very popular in New England, New York. There is a monument to this apple in Massachusetts that reads: “This monument marks the site of the first Baldwin apple tree found growing wild near here. It fell in the gale of 1815.

The apple, first known as the butters, woodpecker or pecker apple, was named after Col. Loammi Baldwin of Woburn.” Ben Davis in Kullu is known as Kali Devi and it is not known whether it has any relation with the original Ben Davis, which was popular during the 19th century in the USA.

A similar variety known as Black Ben Davis was grown in Arkansas and Virginia and, I believe, our Kali Devi is that variety. Golden delicious is a variety that I like but does not fetch much price in the market – probably because its flesh is yellow and not red. Granny Smith or Granny Ramsey Smith green apple originated in Australia in 1868. These are green, crisp, juicy and tart apples. It is grown both in Shimla and Kullu.

Jonathan is a medium-sized sweet apple with a touch of acid and has a tough but smooth skin. It is used as pollinator for the delicious varieties of apples. A popular 19th century apple, very widely grown in Europe at the time, and versatile for culinary and dessert uses is King of the Pippins, which is grown in Himachal too. McIntosh red is ready by late July or early August in Himachal. It is the superior eating apple and, in America, it finds place in children’s lunch boxes for it carries a reputation of being a healthy snack. It is native to Canada. Red gold apple is shiny red, medium in size, juicy and has light yellow flesh. Its drawback is that its size reduces as the age of the plant advances.

Red June is the first to come in the market and so fetches a good price. Yellow Newton or Ras -Pippin is a late variety. It earned its name from the story of the apple, Newton’s head, and their chance encounter that yielded the theory of gravity. As the name suggests, it is very juicy but its popularity among the apple growers is waning. There are many more varieties but I have discusses the important ones of, as Thoreau described it, the noblest of fruits called apple.

Tailpiece

An apple a day keeps the doctor away but an onion a day keeps everybody away.

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1. Early varieties of apple arrive in market – 7/5/2010
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