The Big Apple

I took an early morning stroll around Farmer's Market yesterday to check out what fruits and vegetables are in season. I was looking for apricots and peaches to make some jam. I haven't made jam at home since I left California where I had a fig tree in my backyard. I'll have to wait another month or so for peaches, apricots and nectarines but apples are in abundant supply right now - all varieties of them from the sweet and delicious Honey Crisp to the tart Granny Smith. I bought half a dozen Honey Crisps as a healthy accompaniment to the large chunk of white cheddar that is lying in the fridge ready to be consumed.

Do you know why New York City is called the Big Apple? Curious to find the answer, I did some research on Google and found a very fascinating story about how New York was branded. I was particularly impressed to learn about the negative associations that New York imparted to apples (it had more "houses of ill" per capita than any other city) at the turn of the century because of which sales declined in the U.S. The Apple Marketing Board then embarked on a repositioning initiative and came up with slogans like "An apple a day keeps the Doctor away" and "As American as apple pie" and infused these into popular culture. Quite a remarkable transformation in that they were successful in ridding apples of unsavory associations. In America at least, apples have a very wholesome image these days. Brilliant marketing, wouldn't you say?