Draw winners announced from bazaar at Nobleton United Church

Nobleton United Church

The members of Nobleton United Church and the United Church Women wish to thank the community for supporting their annual Bazaar Oct. 24. We look forward to greeting and visiting with people from Nobleton and the surrounding villages. We also appreciate all those people who bought raffle tickets. The winners were Vicki Venchiarutti of Pottageville (quilt); Maria Simone of Bolton (afghan) ; and Jack Duggan of Schomberg (casserole cover and dish). Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to all who contributed to the success of the bazaar.

Nobleton Lions

Clothing Drive reminder

Nobleton and surrounding area residents are reminded of the upcoming clothing drive to be held this Saturday (Nov. 7). Good used clothes and small household articles will be accepted and put to good use. Residents are advised to have donations on their porch or curb as pickups will begin by 9 a.m. and be completed by noon sharp. Alternatively, articles can be dropped at the parking lot between Nobleton Community Hall and the arena during the times mentioned above. Lastly, watch for a flyer which will be mailed prior to the event, which can be taped to bags or boxes intended for donation.

Nobleton seniors’ activities

The winners of the Tuesday evening euchre were Joe Tasca, Herb Workman, Bernice Tasca, Mary Bullock, Barb Salisbury, Iva Hilliard and Murray Hilliard. We had a tie for most lone hands with Joe Tasca and Herb Workman. The lucky draw winners were Lou Curtis, Murray Hilliard and Paula Latanville. The next evening euchre will be Nov. 10.

We are planning a Pot Luck supper for Nov. 24 at 6 p.m.

Horticulture

“In October you remember, ’neath the old apple tree, You whispered to me when it fruited again you’d be mine. I’ll be with you in apple picking time. I’ll be with you to taste that fruit sublime . . .” and at this time of year apples are certainly at their tastiest best.

At Halloween parties, bobbing for apples is still a fun activity, even for adults, and candied apples are popular at this season too. In more innocent times, apples were often given out as Halloween treats.

Apples, said to be North America’s favourite fruit, are an inexpensive “good for you” nutritious food that should be eaten regularly.

“One day I pray you’ll hear me say lucky is she (or he) who eats an apple each day.”

Surprisingly, apples are not native to the Americas, but originated in prehistoric central Asia, where the descendants of these first apple trees still grow wild. From this central Asian base, apples spread east to China (today's biggest producer of this fruit) and west to Asia Minor (modern Turkey), the Mediterranean region, northern Europe and eventually to the temperate Americas and Australia — New Zealand. Now there are more than 7,500 apple varieties known and all can trace their ancestry back over thousands of years to these central Asian ancestors.

Dwarf apple trees are not a modern development, as ancient Greek botanists accompanying Alexander the Great on his Asian conquests found dwarf apple trees growing in what is today Turkey, and shipped seeds and saplings back to Greece, where Alexander’s friend and mentor, the philosopher Aristotle, had them planted in the gardens of his Lyceum, a school and gymnasium, just outside the walls of Athens.

Winter apples picked in late fall and stored just above freezing, keep for months and have been an important food in both Europe and Asia for thousands of years. Summer apples do not store well, so must be used shortly after picking.

British colonists introduced apple growing to North America in the early 1600s and the first recorded apple orchard in the New World was located near Boston around 1625. French colonists who settled in Acadia (now the Maritime provinces) brought apple seeds and saplings from France, including the Famuese variety, and first planted them in the Annapolis Valley in the 1630s. The first Canadian apples shipped to Europe came from this historic area of Nova Scotia and quality apples for the domestic and overseas markets are still grown there. In 1796, a few years after the American Revolution, loyalist John McIntosh, a farmer and apple breeder from the Mohawk Valley in New York state, arrived in Ontario (then Upper Canada) and settled in Dundas County. He discovered about 20 seedling apple trees, the remnants of an old orchard, growing on the old farm property he had bought. He dug them up and transplanted them. Only one tree survived and eventually this tree bore a most pleasing sweet fruit. John, and later his sons Allan and Alexander, now applied their considerable apple growing skills and the results produced the first Canadian apple, the red McIntosh, which is still popular and recognized worldwide. The original tree lived until 1910 and the place where it grew is now marked by an historical plaque.

Apples fall into three general categories: cider apples (e.g. Golden Russets — U.S.A.), cooking apples (e.g. Granny Smiths — Australia) and dessert or eating apples (e.g. Galas and Braeburns — New Zealand). McIntosh apples are a good eating and cooking fruit, while Northern Spies, originally from New York state, are good for use in all three categories.

Early settlers in Canada grew apples mainly for cider, sweet and hard (alcoholic). A particularly potent hard cider unrefined and still “cloudy,” called scrumpy, was popular in back country places in Canada, France and Britain, and is often available on farms and in pubs and bars in these places today. Cider, long popular in Britain, Ireland, France and Germany, is regaining its former popularity here in Canada and an ice cider called applewine from Quebec is selling well.

Apple trees are usually not large, ranging in height from 10 to 39 feet. They have heavily twigged crowns or tops which, in old species especially, need to be severely pruned or cut out altogether to allow air to circulate more readily, sunlight to reach the middle and lower branches and the tree to direct its energy to these mature limbs that produce the bulk of the fruit, rather than to the new twiggy top growth.

Many apple trees grow well in a variety of soils. We grew two in clay soil upgraded with goodly amounts of natural fertilizer at my former Nobleton area home and I know that apples grow well in the upgraded sandy soil of the Tottenham area where I now live. However, one thing apple trees must have is good drainage and they won’t compromise on this requirement. In colder regions, such as ours, apple trees are often planted on low hills or the sides of gently sloping hills (as ours were in Nobleton) to allow the cold heavier spring night air that would damage the blossoms or newly forming fruit to drain to the base of the hill or slope leaving the trees unharmed.

The botanical name for the apple is “malus,” Latinized Greek for “melon,” which referred to any fruit, “domestica,” Latin meaning “of or from the farm or house,’ or in other words, cultivated.

Eric Partridge, author of Origins, says our word “apple” comes from the Abella, an ancient town (now called Avella) in the Italian region of Campania, which has been famous for its nearby apple orchards since Roman times, but Bill Casselman, in his book Canadian Garden Words, maintains that “apple” comes from the old English word “aeppel,” sometimes spelled A-E-P-L, which has its root in the very ancient Indo European word “abel,” that like the Greek “melon,” referred to the sweet fruit of any tree.

By the by, apples are kissing cousins of strawberries and roses. All belonging to the large Rosaceae family (both apple blossoms and strawberry blossoms closely resemble the flower of the single and wild rose).

“What a wonderful apple day it will be. What a wonderful day with apple strudel, apple crisp and apple pie. Apple presses will chime, you will be mine, in apple picking time.” (Apologies to song writer musicians Neville Fleeson and Albert Von Tilzer).