Apple Day!

A celebration linking culture with nature.

Apple Day is an annual celebration, held on October 21 each year, of apples and orchards. It is celebrated mainly in the United Kingdom. Apple Day has played a part in raising awareness not only of the importance of orchards to landscape and culture, but to the growing interest in locality and in the provenance and traceability of food. From the start, it was intended to be both a celebration and a demonstration of the variety we are in danger of losing – not simply in apples, but richness and diversity of landscape, place, ecology and culture too. In city, town and country, Apple Day events have fostered local pride, celebrated and deepened interest in local distinctiveness.

Apple Day events can be large or small, from apple games in a garden to large village fairs with cookery demonstrations, games, apple identification, juice and cider, gardening advice, and of course many hundreds of apple varieties.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away! This is a saying that has stayed with us for many years. It is believed to have come from an ancient Roman proverb. The Romans truly believed the apple had magical powers to cure illnesses. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why this might be true.

Apples have a good claim to promote health. They contain Vitamin C, which aid the immune system and phenols, which reduce cholesterol. They also reduce tooth decay by cleaning one’s teeth and killing off bacteria. It has also been suggested by Cornell University researchers that the quercetin found in apples protects brain cells against neuro-degenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s Disease.

So with all of this information we can see how the saying could have easily come about. Although not one of the more exotic or expensive rare fruits or superfoods on the planet, apples truly can be a benefit to our daily diet. An apple a day can definitely help keep the doctors away, and that my friend is tasty!  🙂