Saturday, November  9, 2002
M A I N   F E A T U R E


Make this fruit the apple of your eye
Niti Paul Mehta

A professor and a doctor were in love with the same lady. The professor got more opportunities to meet her as he had ample spare time at his disposal. He, therefore, seemed to have a greater chance of winning her hand.

But once he had to go out of town for a couple of weeks. He was afraid that in his absence the situation would be exploited by the doctor. So he thought of a novel way of cautioning the lady without, of course, offending her. Before leaving on the journey, he sent her a basket full of apples with the cryptic note: "An apple a day keeps the doctor away."

This, apart from being an interesting anecdote, reveals the exceptional health-giving properties of apples. Apples are refreshingly sweet and tasty. They are also rich in vitamins and iron.

This is one fruit which, when you are chewing it, cleans your teeth before it goes down your throat in a juicy lump.

 


Apples are perhaps the oldest fruit known to man. In fact we know that lake-dwellers of Italy ate apples even as far back as the stone age. Several varieties of this fruit grew in a natural, wild state during the olden times.

But as man’s knowledge of nature and science grew, he learnt to cultivate, graft and transplant them. He created new, improved and better fruit-yielding varieties. So from the early 25 original varieties, we now have over 2000 varieties of apples growing all over the world. But it is not yet the end. The process of developing and selecting new varieties is a continuing one.

The flavour, the size of the fruit, its resistance to disease and weather conditions are some of the factors which are kept in mind while selecting new varieties for propagation.

The early man, apart from eating it raw, used the fruit for making cider and vinegar. Now, of course, we make jellies and jams from it and even extract juice, which is greatly relished as a delicious, nutritious drink.

Apples come in diverse sizes and shades. But almost all varieties — whether red, white, greenish or creamy — have a hard, glossy, attractive skin. The ambri with its red colour is considered to be the best. "But the characteristic colour of an apple," writes an authority, "depends on sunlight, proper nutrition and adequate water."

We are now in the midst of the apple season. Apple carts have arrived. They’ll stay here for quite some time. And they are yet not very expensive. Carry them home. Wash them, peel them and eat them. The old saying is "Never peel a pear but never eat an apple unpeeled." I can’t vouch for its veracity but I always follow it. Make apple chaat if you like. Or try out apple sauce, apple pie or apple murabba and forget dieting for a while.