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Johnny Appleseed planting apple trees for kids to eat (discuss.online)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/microblogmemes@lemmy.world
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Actually I looked up the real story of Johnny Appleseed and he was more about making hard cider and selling land. πŸ™ƒ

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[–] 27 points 9 months ago (10 children)

Apparently apples were primarily used for making booze right from the start of the country, which does indeed make Johnny Appleseed's story feel rather different.

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  • [–] 6 points 9 months ago

    Washington was a big fan of apple jack, which is what you get when apple cider is freeze distilled.

    Much of the US is experiencing prime weather for apple jack actually, though it's a little late to get a mash started in time for this weekend's weather.

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  • [–] 8 points 9 months ago (8 children)

    Probably not primarily booze, but vinegar. Prior to refrigeration and canning, food preservation was massively important. This meant salting, smoking or pickling. Apples that weren't good for eating were important as a source for producing vinegar.

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  • [–] 8 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    It was for cider. They drank a staggering amount of beer, cider and rum on a daily basis in the early 1800's. Cider consumption per capita in the was around 15 gallons/year. They drank even more beer and rum. They were also drinking around 5 gallons/year of distilled spirits.

    Most people were what we would classify as functional alcoholics today.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    15 gallons per year comes out to about 6 pints per week. Not exactly staggering amounts, but combined with the spirits (and I’m sure they were drinking other stuff as well), it would definitely qualify for alcoholism today.

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  • [–] 6 points 9 months ago (3 children)

    If you know what brewing with apples and not having access to modern equipment, sanitation and yeast is like then I highly doubt they were in short supply of vinegar.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Yeah, that's... that's what they're saying.

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  • [–] 2 points 9 months ago* (1 child)

    No they are saying that it was intentionally made into vinegar as it's primary purpose. That just simply isn't true, it's primary purpose was hard cider, vinegar was a byproduct of failed batches that few people would be in short supply of.

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