Young apples-to-be cluster on a branch in Concord, Mass., earlier this week. |
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Friday, May 10, 2013
America through the lens of Johnny Appleseed
public-domain image |
Eccentric and saintly, Johnny Appleseed is an unlikely member of the pantheon of American folk superheros that includes such he-men as Davey Crockett, Paul Bunyan, and John Henry.
Like Crockett, Johnny Appleseed was a real person, though his name was John Chapman.
Born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, in the early days of the American Revolution, Chapman grew up in Westfield and headed west to become a frontier nurseryman, bachelor, and sometime Swedenborgian evangelist.
He gleaned apple seeds from cider mills and eked out a living planting them and selling saplings to settlers.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Apple blossom time
Full bloom today on an apple tree in Arlington, Massachusetts.
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After several years of harvest jeopardized by early springs, it is a relief to see the trees in bloom in May.
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