Apricots in Culture
The Chinese associate the apricot with education and medicine. Chuang Tzu, a Chinese philosopher in 4th century BCE, had told a story that Confucius taught his students in a forum among the wood of apricot.[citation needed]
In The Wizard of Oz, the Cowardly Lion sings, “What puts the ape in the apricot? Courage!”
Apricots were used by the Australian Aborigines as an aphrodisiac. A special tea was prepared from the apricot stone, while the fruit was crushed and smeared over the erogenous regions.
Among tank-driving soldiers, apricots are taboo, by superstition. Tankers will not eat apricots, allow apricots onto their vehicles, and often will not even say the word “apricot”. This superstition stems from Sherman tank breakdowns purportedly happening in the presence of cans of apricots.[21]
Dreaming of apricots, in English folklore, is said to be good luck.
The Turkish idiom “bundan iyisi S,amdak Ay?s?” (literally, the only thing better than this is an apricot in Damascus) means “it doesn’t get any better than this” and used when something is the very best it can be; like a delicious apricot from Damascus.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints includes in their Children’s Songbook the song “Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree” describing an apricot tree in bloom.
Posted on Feb 23rd 2008 by admin. 1 Comment ». Edit
Peaches in Asian tradition
Peaches are known in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam not only as a popular fruit but for the many folktales and traditions associated with it. Momotaro, one of Japan’s most noble and semi-historical heroes, was born from within an enormous peach floating down a stream. Momotaro or “Peach Boy” went on to fight evil oni and face many adventures. Peach flowers are admired by the Japanese but not as much as the sakura (cherry).
In China, the peach was said to be consumed by the immortals due to its mystic virtue of conferring longevity on all who ate them. The divinity Yu Huang, also called the Jade Emperor, and his mother called Xi Wangmu also known as Queen Mother of the West. Xi Wangmu ensured the gods’ everlasting existence by feeding them the peaches of immortality. The immortals residing in the palace of Xi Wangmu were said to celebrate an extravagant banquet called the Pantao Hui or “The Feast of Peaches”. The immortals waited six thousand years before gathering for this magnificent feast; the peach tree put forth leaves once every thousand years and it required another three thousand years for the fruit to ripen. Ivory statues depicting Xi Wangmu’s attendants often held three peaches.
The peach often plays an important part in Chinese tradition and is symbolic of long life. One example is in the peach-gathering story of Zhang Daoling, who many say is the true founder of Taoism. Elder Zhang Guo, one of the Chinese Eight Immortals, is often depicted carrying a Peach of Immortality. The peach blossoms are also highly prized in Chinese culture, ranked slightly lower than mei blossom.
It was in an orchard of flowering peach trees that Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei took an oath of brotherhood in the opening chapter of the classic Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Due to its delicious taste and soft texture, in ancient China “peach” was also a slang word for “young bride”, and it has remained in many cultures as a way to define young women (as in English, with peachy or peachy keen).
Posted on Feb 23rd 2008 by admin. No Comments ». Edit
Apple History
The center of diversity of the genus Malus is the eastern Turkey, southwestern Russia region of Asia Minor. The apple tree was perhaps the earliest tree to be cultivated, and their fruits were improved through selection over a period of thousands of years by early farmers. Alexander the Great is credited with finding dwarfed apples in Asia Minor in 300 BC; those he brought back to Greece might have been the progenitors of dwarfing rootstocks. Apples were brought to North America with colonists in the 1600s, and the first apple orchard on this continent was said to be near Boston in 1625. Winter apples, picked in late autumn and stored just above freezing, have been an important food in Asia and Europe for millennia, as well as in Argentina and in the United States since the arrival of Europeans. In the 1900s, irrigation projects in Washington state began and allowed the development of the multi-billion dollar fruit industry, of which the apple is the leading species.
Posted on Feb 23rd 2008 by admin. No Comments ». Edit
Cultivation Blueberries
Blueberries are cultivated and picked wild. In North America, the most common cultivated species is V. corymbosum, the Northern Highbush Blueberries. Hybrids of this with other Vaccinium species adapted to southern U.S. climates are known collectively as Southern Highbush Blueberries.
Blueberry flowers
Wild blueberries, smaller than cultivated ones, are prized for their intense color. The Lowbush Blueberry, V. angustifolium, is found from Newfoundland westward and southward to Michigan and West Virginia. In some areas it produces natural blueberry barrens, where it is practically the only species covering large areas. Several First Nations communities in Ontario are involved in harvesting wild blueberries. Low bush species are fire-tolerant and blueberry production often increases following a forest fire as the plants regenerate rapidly and benefit from removal of competing vegetation.
There are numerous highbush cultivars of blueberries, each of which have a unique and diverse flavor. The most important blueberry breeding program has been the USDA-ARS breeding program based at Beltsville, Maryland and Chatsworth, New Jersey. This program began when Dr. Frederick Coville of the USDA-ARS collaborated with Ms. Elizabeth White. In the early part of the 20th Century, Ms. White offered wild pickers cash for large fruited blueberry plants. ‘Rubel’, one such wild blueberry cultivar, is the origin of many of the current hybrid cultivars.
Posted on Feb 23rd 2008 by admin. No Comments ». Edit
Some information about Raspberries
Raspberries are grown for the fresh fruit market and for commercial processing into individually quick frozen (IQF) fruit, purée, juice, or as dried fruit used in a variety of grocery products. Traditionally, raspberries were a mid-summer crop, but with new technology, cultivars and transportation, they can now be obtained year-round. Raspberries need ample sun and water for optimal development. While moisture is essential, wet and heavy soils or excess irrigation can bring on Phytophthora root rot which is one of the most serious pest problems facing red raspberry. As a cultivated plant in moist temperate regions, it is easy to grow and has a tendency to spread unless pruned. Escaped raspberries frequently appear as garden weeds, spread by seeds found in bird droppings.
Two types are commercially available, the wild-type summer bearing, that produces an abundance of fruit on second-year canes (floricanes) within a relatively short period in mid-summer, and double- or “ever”-bearing plants, which also bear some fruit on first-year canes (primocanes) in the late summer and fall, as well as the summer crop on second-year canes. Raspberries can be cultivated from hardiness zones 3 to 9.
Raspberries are traditionally planted in the winter as dormant canes, although planting of tender, plug plants from tissue culture produced plants has become much more common. A specialized production system called “long cane production” involves growing canes for 1 year in a northern climate such as Scotland (UK) or Washington State (US) where the chilling requirement for proper budbreak is met early. These canes are then dug, roots and all, to be replanted in warmer climates such as Spain where they quickly flower and produce a very early season crop. Plants should be spaced 1 m apart in fertile, well drained soil; raspberries are usually planted in raised beds/ridges if there is any question about root rot problems.
Posted on Feb 23rd 2008 by admin. No Comments ». Edit
Hello world!
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
Posted on Feb 23rd 2008 by admin. 1 Comment ». Edit