Apple Trivia 

It's the season for harvest festivals and apple picking, as pretty much every local food publication has made abundantly clear.

To help you out, here's a list of pick-your-own places in Vermont. It's not apple specific, but there are lots of orchards on the list.

And now the fun stuff...

Apple Trivia:

• In Ancient Greece, one way of proposing to a young lady was tossing her an apple. Catching it was the equivalent of saying "yes." But what if your chosen one was a klutz?
• There are more than 7500 apple varieties in the world
• China produces more apples than any other country. The United States comes in second
• The world's biggest (known) apple weighed three pounds
• Way before Zoloft was a gleam in a Pfizer exec's eye, apple juice was prescribed as an antidepressant
• One of the oldest known cookbooks, the Roman De Re Coquinaria (On the Subject of Cooking), includes a recipe for pork with apples. The book is from the 4th or 5th century A.D.
• At weddings, it used to be customary to throw apples. Rice probably hurts less
• Only crab apples grew in the United States before European settlers introduced bigger, sweeter versions
• When John Glenn orbited the earth, he noshed on applesauce in space
• One medium apple contains 80 calories and 20% of your daily fiber requirement
• Apples are related to roses, strawberries and almonds
• It takes 36 apples to make one gallon of apple cider
  

In my research, I noticed that apple varieties often have really cool names. Here are a few of them:

1) Ashmead's Kernal
2) Crimson Crisp
3) Epicure
4) Fallawater
5) Galarina
6) Horneburger Pancake
7) Hubbardston Nonesuch
8) Lady in the Snow
9) Magnum Bonum
10) Northern Lights
11) Pink Sparkle
12) Rambo
13) Rusty Coat
14) Sops of Wine
15) Smokehouse
16) Strawberry Parfait
17) Translucent Crab
18) Winter Banana
19) Zuccalmaglio's Rienette