Apples have been enjoyed for a very long time. Adam and Eve may have been the first consumers, and by the 13th century B.C. Egyptian pharaohs were planting apple trees along the Nile. Romans grew more than thirty varieties, and probably introduced the apple to England in the first century A.D.
The Pilgrims cultivated the first apples in North America, in Massachusetts. The early settlers used cuttings and seeds to plant orchards. By 1640 apple orchards were well established all over the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Almost all land owners of this era planted apple trees.
Johnny Appleseed is one of American history’s
fondest legends. Born in 1774, John Chapman of Leominster, Massachusetts
(a few miles west of Still River Winery), planted over 10,000
square miles of orchards.
