#63 - Apples!! 🍎🍏

I have a riddle for you. 

Shoot!  "Shoot” is an expression we use when we want someone to tell us something! So, “shoot”! Tell me!        !

OK! Here’s the riddle; I’m red or green, a tasty delight, a fruit to munch, morning, noon or night.” What am I? (Munch is one of those wonderful words that sounds what it means - to eat something - often loudly. if I have "the munchies" I want to eat something.)

Hmm. I think you’re an apple. 

Right-O! - and that’s our subject for the day - apples!

Delicious idea! We recently talked about autumn or fall and apples are a fruit that ripens – or becomes mature in the fall. The state of Washington grows 60% of all apples grown in the US and ships apples all over the world.

Apples are a 2 billion dollar crop in Washington state.  2 billion! That’s an extremely big number.  How do we write 2 billion? 2 comma 000 comma 000 comma 000. That’s 9 zeroes! Most commercial apple orchards are east of the Cascade Mountain Range where there is more sun than in western Washington and not as much rain as in western Washington. Podcast # 38 is about the Cascade Mountain Range. 

 An orchard is a place where trees that produce fruit or nuts are grown.

There’s a small city just east of the Cascades, kind of right in the middle of Washington state, that is known as the “apple capital of the world’” -  Wenatchee.

The name of the city Wenatchee comes from the name of the indigenous people, the Winatchi, who are native to the area. The most common meaning given for the word “Winatchi” is “river flowing from a canyon”. About 31,000 people live in Wenatchee. The city has an apple blossom festival in the spring to celebrate the apples that are grown on the orchards there.

What do people do with all those apples beside munching on them? 

Well, people  make apple pies or apple muffins. You can also cook them on the stove with a little water and cinnamon and make apple sauce. You can press the apples and squeeze the juice from them and make apple cider. The apple cider taste is sweet, but a little tangy – a strong   or citrusy taste. Tangy means just a little sourness. Sweet is the opposite of sour.

Cider is not filtered like apple juice, so it is cloudy, not clear like apple juice. It can be fermented and then it contains alcohol. We call cider that is fermented “hard cider”.

There are some “apple idioms or expressions” that are kind of fun.  If I say ‘My niece is the apple of my eye.” I mean that she is loved and treasured very much.

How about  “That person is a  bad apple”? Now, that’s the opposite of “the apple of my eye”. A person who is a “bad apple” is a person who has a bad or negative influence on others.

“He upset the apple cart”  means he ruined a plan or a situation.

If I say “ That apple didn’t fall far from the tree.” I am talking about a child that resembles their parent or parents in the way they look or behave.

And if I call you an “apple polisher”?  “To polish” means to rub something and make it shine. – like polishing the furniture.   If you call me an “apple polisher” you mean that I say or do nice things just to get something from someone else – usually someone who is an authority. 

One more idiom – not an apple idiom but a “polish” idiom: to “polish off” means to finish something. So, let’s polish off our apple episode by reminding you, dear listeners, that you are the apples our eye – or … our eyes. 

Tacomaliteracy.org