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Looking for Apple Facts in 2024? Scroll down this page and follow the links. And if you bring home some fruit or vegetables and want to can, freeze, make jam, salsa or pickles, see this page for simple, reliable, illustrated canning, freezing or preserving directions. There are plenty of other related resources, click on the resources dropdown above. If you are having a hard time finding canning lids, I've used these, and they're a great price & ship in 2 days.

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Apple Facts

Apples are eaten fresh, cooked, canned, frozen and made into many tasty and healthy dishes. Apples are fat-free, low sodium, and cholesterol-free. A bushel weighs between 42 and 48 lbs. A medium apple has about 80 calories. Apples originated in the Middle East (in an area between the Caspin and the Black Sea) more than 4000 years ago! They were the favorite fruit of ancient Greeks and Romans. Apples arrived in England at around the time of the Norman conquest (in 1066) and English settlers brought them to America in the 1600 and 1700's. Only the crabapple is native to North America. Johnny Appleseed did really exist; his name was John Chapman, and he was born on September 26,1774 near Leominster, Massachusetts. (For more about Johnny Appleseed, see this page!)

More Apple Facts and Fun!

A bushel of apples typically weighs between 42 and 48 lbs.
Apples are grown commercially in 36 states.
Apples are grown in all 50 states.
Europeans eat about 46 pounds of apples annually.
United States consumers ate an average of 45.2 pounds of fresh apples and processed apple products. That's a lot of applesauce!
61 percent of United States apples are eaten as fresh fruit.
39 percent of apples are processed into apple products; 21 percent of this is for juice and cider.
The top apple producing states are Washington, New York, Michigan, California, Pennsylvania and Virginia, which produced over 83 percent of the nation's 2001-crop apple supply.
Apples are a great source of the fiber pectin. One apple has five grams of fiber.
In 2001 there were 8,000 apple growers with orchards covering 430,200 acres. (don't know how many of those are PYO).
The pilgrims planted the first United States apple trees in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Apple trees take four to five years to produce their first fruit, but you normally buy 2 or 3 year plants at the nursery, so it's only 2 years till they produce!
Most apples are still picked by hand in the fall.
Apple varieties range in size from a little larger than a cherry to as large as a grapefruit.
In Europe, France, Italy and Germany are the leading apple producing countries.
Apples are a member of the rose family.
Apples harvested from an average tree can fill 20 bushel boxes that weigh 42 pounds each.
25 percent of an apple's volume is air. That is why they float.
It takes the energy from 50 leaves to produce one apple.
Apples are the second most valuable fruit grown in the United States. Oranges are first.
In colonial time apples were called winter banana or melt-in-the-mouth.
China is the leading producer of apples with over 1.2 billion bushels grown in 2001. The U.S. is number 2 and then Turkey, Poland and Italy.
Newton Pippin apples were the first apples exported from America in 1768, some were sent to Benjamin Franklin in London.
One of George Washington's hobbies was pruning his apple trees.
America's longest-lived apple tree was reportedly planted in 1647 by Peter Stuyvesant in his Manhattan orchard and was still bearing fruit when a derailed train struck it in 1866.
A bushel of apples weights about 42 pounds (up to 48 lbs) and will yield 12 to 15 quarts of applesauce.
It takes about 36 apples to create one gallon of apple cider.
Finally, if you have an apple tree and want to know what variety it is, see this page.

It's all about the variety!

Of the apple, that is. There are

2500 varieties of apples are grown in the United States.
7500 varieties of apples are grown throughout the world.
About 100 different varieties of apples are grown commercially in the United States.

You really need to choose the type of apple that is best suited for your purpose. Apples can be suited for eating fresh, cooking, baking, applesauce, storing, etc. I have a fairly extensive guide to apple varieties here!

The top ten apple varieties currently grown in the United States are:

Red Delicious
Gala
Golden Delicious
Fuji
Granny Smith
McIntosh
Honeycrisp
Rome
Empire
Cripps Pink

Apple nutrition facts

Nutrition and miscellaneous facts: One-half cup of apples is only 42 calories. Apples contain no cholesterol or fat and are also low in calories. T Apples are high in dietary fiber, Vitamin A and niacin. They contain iron and other trace minerals and are a fair source of Vitamin C.
Apples are ranked No. 1 in antioxidant activity compared with 40 other commercially available fruits and vegetables. That means a serving of apples has more of the antioxidant power you need to fight aging, cancer and heart disease.
Put this in your pipe! Indians in the Northwest Territory smoked wild apples to preserve them for the winter. (Bet you didn't know that!)

Canning apples - fully illustrated, with step-by-step instructions

Recipes, illustrated with step by step instructions

Apple pie recipe and directions and illustrated! I can say, with, ahem, no bias at all, that this is the best apple pie recipe in the world! (Alright, I did have an apple strudel in Vienna once at that place listed in Fodors that was REALLY good, but that wasn't a pie, was it? And since this was the recipe my grandmother used, it must be great!)
How to make applesauce for a single meal (not canning it) with NO special equipment
Apple crunch - best of all! Moist, low sugar and using oats!
Apple crisp - ever-popular, low sugar and using oats!
Apple, blackberry, cherry, and/or peach cobbler
Apple-blackberry, crumble - a English favorite (or favourite)

And the many apple associations listed on this page have more facts and resources

Current Season (2024) Apple News

The U.S. Apple Association's estimate of the size of the United States apple crop between 240 and 270 million bushels.

See this page for much more detailed information about the apple crop and apple production trends.

Apples—Average retail price per pound or pint and per cup equivalent, 2020
Form	Average retail price		Preparation yield factor	Size of a cup equivalent		Average price per cup equivalent
Fresh1 -	$1.52	per pound	0.9	0.243	pounds	$0.41
Applesauce2 -	$1.07	per pound	1	0.540	pounds	$0.58
Juice
Ready to drink3 -	$0.78	per pint	1	8	fl. oz.	$0.39
Frozen4 -	$0.59	per pint	1	8	fl. oz.	$0.29
1 - The USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference (SR) reports that the inedible stem and core of a raw apple account for 10 percent of the fruit's weight, implying a preparation yield of 90 percent, when apples are eaten raw including the peel.
2 - Excludes applesauce packed in individual containers that are 4 ounces in size or smaller. Includes flavors like "original," "cinnamon," "plain," "unsweetened," "old fashioned," "homestyle," "sweetened," and "brown sugar cinnamon." Excludes certain other flavors like "strawberry," "honey cinnamon," "peach," and "maple."
3 - Includes refrigerated and unrefrigerated juice.
4 - Includes juice sold as frozen concentrate. The consumer reconstitutes this juice after purchase by adding three containers of water per container of concentrate. Retail price is dollars per pint after reconstitution.
Source: USDA, Economic Research Service calculations from 2020 Circana (formerly Information Resources, Inc. [IRI]) OmniMarket Core Outlets (formerly InfoScan) data; the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference (SR), Legacy Release; and the Food Patterns Equivalents Database (FPED) 2017–18 as well as the FPED's accompanying Methodology and User Guide.

Apple Festivals

Here is a list of major apple festivals in the U.S., Britain, Australia and other countries. If you know of any more, please write me! Feedback

Canning Books, Supplies and Accessories

These are my favorite essential canning tools, books and supplies. I've been using many of these for over 50 years of canning! The ones below on this page are just the sampling of. my preferred tools. but you can find much more detailed and extensive selections on the pages that are linked below.

The Ball Blue Book of Home Canning

The All New Ball Book Of Canning And Preserving: Over 350 of the Best Canned, Jammed, Pickled, and Preserved Recipes Paperback

This is THE book on canning! My grandmother used this book when I was a child.; It tells you in simple instructions how to can almost anything; complete with recipes for jam, jellies, pickles, sauces, canning vegetables, meats, etc.

If it can be canned, this book likely tells you how! Click on the link below for more information and / or to buy (no obligation to buy)The New Ball Blue Book of Canning and Preserving

Canning & Preserving For Dummies in Paperback

Canning and Preserving for Dummies by Karen Ward

This is another popular canning book. Click here for more information, reviews, prices for Canning and Preserving For Dummies

Of course, you do not need to buy ANY canning book as I have about 500 canning, freezing, dehydrating and more recipes all online for free, just see Easy Home Canning Directions.

Home Canning Kits

McSunley 21.5 quart Water Bath Canner, Stainless Steel See here for related tools, equipment, supplies on Amazon
See here for related tools, equipment, supplies on Amazon See here for related tools, equipment, supplies on Amazon

I have several canners, and my favorite is the stainless steel one at right. It is easy to clean and seems like it will last forever. Mine is 10 years old and looks like new.

The black ones are the same type of standard canner that my grandmother used to make everything from applesauce to jams and jellies to tomato and spaghetti sauce.

This complete kit includes everything you need and lasts for years: the canner, jar rack, Jar grabber tongs, lid lifting wand, a plastic funnel, labels, bubble freer, It's much cheaper than buying the items separately. It's only missing the bible of canning, the Ball Blue Book.

You will never need anything else except jars & lids (and the jars are reusable)!

The complete list of canners is on these pages:

Water bath canners - Good for acidic foods, like applesauce, pickles, salsa, jams, jellies, most fruits
Pressure canners - needed for low and non-acidic foods, like canned vegetables (corn, green beans, etc), and meats
Canners for glass top stoves if you have a glass or ceramic stove
Canners for induction stovetops

Pressure Canners

If you plan on canning non-acidic foods and low acid foods that are not pickled - this means: meats, seafood, soups, green beans corn, most vegetables, etc., then you ABSOLUTELY must use a Pressure Canner.

Of course, you can use a pressure canner as a water bath canner as well - just don't seal it up, so it does not pressurize. This means a Pressure Canner is a 2-in-1 device. With it, you can can almost ANYTHING.

There are also other supplies, accessories, tools and more canners, of different styles, makes and prices, click here!

Canning Supplies Starter Kit - Canning Jar Lifter, Canning funnel, Scissor Tongs, more

Basic Canning Accessories

From left to right:

Jar lifting tongs to pick up hot jars
Lid sanitizer / lifter - to remove lids from the pot of boiling water (sterilizing )
Lids- disposable - you may only use them once
Ring - holds the lids on the jar until after the jars cool - then you remove them, save them and reuse them
Canning Jar funnel - to fill the jars

FREE Illustrated Canning, Freezing, Jam Instructions and Recipes

Don't spend money on books. that you don't need to. Almost everything you can find in some book sold online or in a store is on my website here for free. Start with theEasy Home Canning Directions below. That is a master list of canning directions which are all based upon the Ball Bblue book, the National Center for Home Food Preservation and other reputable lab tested recipes. Almost every recipe I present in addition to being lab tested com. is in a step by step format with photos for each step and complete. explanations. that tell you how to do it, where to get the supplies and pretty much everything you need to know. In addition, there almost always in a PDF format so you can print them out and use them while you cook.

[ Easy Home Canning Directions]

[FAQs - Answers to common questions and problems]

[Free canning publications to download and print]