Was Johnny Appleseed for real?

CBS News ^ | November 26, 2017

[Lurker]

Mo should do an Appleseed Shoot next.

That’d be a hoot.

L

[a little elbow grease]

Yes...... I think he lived here in my home town (Pittsburgh) back a little before 1800.

One heck of a fellow, they say.

[JimRed]

An itinerant preacher, planting where he wandered IIRC.

[mad_as_he$$]

JA was real. But his efforts were to promote the making of apple moonshine. He traveled and collect shine “taxes” for helping people get apple orchards going. “Whiskey” was the rural currency along with other farming products.

[Daffynition]

[Daffynition]

*Chapman was often noted for his threadbare clothes and preference for bare feet. But these eccentricities may have been offerings to his faith, the Church of Swedenborg (also known as The New Church), a Christian denomination established in 1787. The second part of his signature look—that sack of apple seeds—was most definitely accurate. Because the Church forbade its members harming God’s creation, Chapman became a vocal animal rights activist and vegetarian. He also refused to use grafting to create his orchards, believing that this growing technique physically hurt the source plants. So, he carried a large sack of seeds everywhere he traveled. However, his oft-depicted tin pot hat has not been authenticated.*

[a little elbow grease]

He knew .... and all should know that if you cut an apple horizontally at the center through the seeds ...... you will see a perfect star.

All is good .....

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Was Johnny Appleseed for real?

Yes, and he has a brother: DeQuan Spredmyseed who gots 35 kids wif 28 different women.

[Kaslin]

[DannyTN]

I think we should seed bomb forest areas with edible plants, so that if society ever decays or their is famine, there would be a ready source of food for harvesting.

[PIF]

Apples originated in China beginning possibly about two to ten million years ago.

[Mean Daddy]

https://www.sciencealert.com/how-12-000-tonnes-of-dumped-orange-peel-produced-something-nobody-imagined

[Kenton]

Interesting subject, I grew up with this story. John Chapman’s first orchards were located near my home town in the Brokenstraw Valley in NW Pennsylvania. The wild descendants of those orchards have produced wild apples in the woods along the valley.

[ClearCase_guy]

Yes. Moonshine/Hard Cider. In the absence of pure water, this was important for health. Also vinegar from apples as an important preservative before refrigeration.

He helped settlers have safe food to eat and drink. Johnny Appleseed was not really aiming at tasty pies. He performed a very valuable service. And he was a preacher.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Kaslin.

• Science Traces Roots Of 'Traditional English' Apple Back To Central Asia [02/24/2007]
• Pomologists Bite Off More Than They Can Chew With 200-Year-Old Apple Mystery [01/29/2007]
• Johnny Appleseed; Good News Fresh From Heaven [09/20/2009]
• Profiles in Pork: Johnny Appleseed Meets Uncle Sam [12/14/2003]
• China's apple industry a growing challenge [12/20/2004]

[buffaloguy]

Families normally drank apple cidet. The fermentation killed bacteria.

[EveningStar]

Johnny Appleseed - 1948 Disney short (17:35)

[SunkenCiv]

thanks, I'll check it out. I've got a somewhat poor DVD version of the 1946 Disney classic "Song of the South", which is of course de facto banned in the US. It's not racist IMHO, but is typical Disney drivel.

[Vermont Lt]

He was kind of a hippie.