All About Apples
Apples are one of America’s favorite fruit. Most people eat an average of 65 apples per year. They are eaten plain and in many dishes. Some of the ways this fruit can be eaten are in pies, cookies, candied, drenched in caramel, as applesauce, fried, baked, dried and steamed. That gives people a lot of choices in how to eat apples!
Where do we get all these great apple foods we love to eat? From the apple trees, of course. Apples grow in orchards, which is just the name of the farms where apple trees are grown. The farmers take care of their apple trees all year long. When the apples are ripe in the fall, the farmers invite everyone to pick their own apples.
Apples are not ripe in other parts of the year. In the spring, an apple trees begin to bloom. Apples start as apple blossoms, a small flower that sprout on the trees and then fall off. Once the flowers fall off the apple tree, tiny apples begin to grow.
In the summer, the new apples are green and hard. They are very, very tart and can make you have a stomach ache if you try to eat them. You should remember, though, that green doesn’t always mean “not ripe”. Some varieties of apples will stay green even when they are ready to be picked. Granny Smith apples stay green all the time.
In the fall, the apples are ripe. The fruit is fully grown and ready to eat. By the fall, the apples are shades of red, green, and yellow. The colors of the apples in the fall can tell you about the type of apple it is. The size of the ripe apples can also tell you what type it is.
During the months of winter, the apple trees take a break. They drop their leaves and remaining apples to the ground. The branches are bare and empty. The tree rests in the winter so that it can blossom in the spring.
Apples are made up of many parts. Some parts are food for us and others are not. Some of the parts we don’t eat are food for the apples. Other parts we can’t eat are for growing more apple trees.
The core of the apple is in the center of the apple. It is where the seeds are at in the fruit. The seeds are not for eating. The core protects the seeds so that more apple trees can grow from them.
The flesh of the apple is the tender, crisp inside of the apple. It surrounds the core and the seeds, offering protection to them. The flesh is juicy and sweet. Sometimes, the flesh has a bit of tartness to it. This is one of the parts we eat.
The skin covers the apple. It is the colored part of the apple as well. The job of the skin is to protect the flesh so that the apple will not spoil on the tree. Sometimes, insects will cut the skin. This will cause the apple to spoil. The insects will do this because they like to eat apples, too. We eat the skin of apples, too, but we usually wait until the apples are ripe to eat them. Insects don’t always wait.
The stem is a part we do not eat. It connects the apple to the tree. If there were no stem, the apple would not be able to hold onto the tree and finish growing.
The leaves on the stem and the apple tree make food for the tree. The food is then given to all parts of the tree so that it stays healthy. Healthy apple trees make lots of apples for people to eat.
