Exhibit On Real Johnny Appleseed To Hit the Road

An anonymous reader writes with this story about a traveling Johnny Appleseed exhibit set to hit the road sometime next year. If you picture Johnny Appleseed as a loner wearing a tin pot for a hat and flinging apple seeds across the countryside, experts say you're wrong. They're hoping that a traveling exhibit funded by an anonymous donation to a western Ohio center and museum will help clear misconceptions about the folk hero and the real man behind the legend. "We want people around the country to know the real person, not just the myths and folklore," said Cheryl Ogden, director of the Johnny Appleseed Educational Center and Museum at Urbana University in Urbana. "We want them to know John Chapman's values of hard work, compassion and generosity." Chapman, known as Johnny Appleseed to generations of Americans, was a pioneer nurseryman in the late 18th and early 19th centuries credited with introducing apple trees to portions of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and West Virginia. While it's probably true that he lived outdoors and wore ragged clothes, at least sometimes, researchers doubt he wore a pot on his head or just gave his seedlings and nurseries away.

Comments

There are modern day fruit tree efforts too

[GoodNewsJimDotCom]

Since fruit trees can bear annually without any specific farming, they're an okay food source supplement in places war torn, or recovering from deforestation

I have a tweet I do on twitter daily: Go #green & help the #poor @foodforthepoor Plant fruit trees in #Haiti http://www.foodforthepoor.org/...

Re:There are modern day fruit tree efforts too

[Charliemopps]

One Problem with your plan... Poor people need firewood to.

Re:There are modern day fruit tree efforts too

[kamapuaa]

You're off by a billion people or so. Cooking over wood fires or using rudimentary wood-fueled cooking stoves is very common.

Re:There are modern day fruit tree efforts too

[ChromeAeonium]

Check out the Breadfruit Institute for a good group on that topic. Breadfruit is highly productive and can be grown in some of the poorest most food insecure regions on the globe.

Re:There are modern day fruit tree efforts too

[Charliemopps]

I don't think most people cook with wood ovens even in poor countries. If you mean to provide heat, Haiti isn't exactly a cold place.

wow... you need to get out of the house... Haven't been to Haiti myself, but I've been to plenty of primarily African heritage 3rd world countries. Most people use wood to cook. Old pallets, dead trees, whatever they can find. If you have a bit more money you can afford to buy home-made charcoal. There are vendors that make and sell it. You put the wood in a 55 gallon steel drum that's sealed and light a fire under it. This cooks all the wood inside and turns it to charcoal, the exhausted from the barrel drips wood vinegar which you can collect and also sell. It works well as an antiseptic, food additive, pesticide, etc... If you can afford gas, or anything like that, you're rich as hell. The one thing I learned from going overseas to countries like this is that the people are so ungodly poor that most Americans can't even conceive of what it's like to be them. The poorest, box car riding transient in this country has more wealth on him in the form of his cloths, maybe tools, and more importantly opportunity than 95% of the people in the 3rd world.

Re:There are modern day fruit tree efforts too

[phantomfive]

and more importantly opportunity than 95% of the people in the 3rd world

Yeah, this is what is sad to me, the hopelessness people have.

Re:There are modern day fruit tree efforts too

[khallow]

One Problem with your plan... Poor people need firewood to.

Well, some fruit trees give high quality firewood. So they seem likely to be able to provide on that front as well.

Re:There are modern day fruit tree efforts too

[Charliemopps]

and more importantly opportunity than 95% of the people in the 3rd world

Yeah, this is what is sad to me, the hopelessness people have.

That's somewhat true. But despite what those terrible commercials show on TV I didn't see throngs of hopelessly miserable Children. They were as happy, if not happier than any US child. playing made up games in the streets, chasing our car and singing. They asked to touch my hair, which I think people over here would get crabby about but being an uncultured idiot myself I understood the lack of tact and didn't have a problem with it. Granted, I never went anywhere while there was a drought or anything. I think the biggest problem for cultures like that is they are great and thriving but have no infrastructure for dealing with even minor disasters. So when it doesn't rain for a while, or there's an earthquake or whatever, they're really in dire need. That's why our aid kind of sucks there. One really interesting thing I noticed while I was in Ethiopia, was that there were these Mexican monuments to Ethiopia all over the place. I asked about it and apparently Mexico and Ethiopia are great allies. Up to that point I never thought of Mexico as a country that gives aid. But their aid is different. Rather than air dropping tons and tons of free food on a village and there-by destroying the entire local economy... Mexico paid to have monuments in town built. That may seem silly, but think about it... They hired local workers, paid for local materials, trained engineers, etc... it's brilliant. They injected money into the economy but didn't ruin businesses in the process. I suppose I'm getting off topic, but I could talk about Africa for days. It's an amazing and friendly place despite what you see on the news. Most people in the US, including myself until I went, have a completely inaccurate perception of the continent and if you ever have the chance to go, you should jump at it. It will change your life. Even more amazingly, the cultures of a lot of the Caribbean islands that we Americans visit frequently are very similar as well.

Re:There are modern day fruit tree efforts too

[phantomfive]

just because people are poor, doesn't mean they are hopeless.

You should visit (really visit, not do the touristy thing) a third-world country and feel the hopelessness. Not all countries are like that,but a lot of them are.

Re:There are modern day fruit tree efforts too

[phantomfive]

But despite what those terrible commercials show on TV I didn't see throngs of hopelessly miserable Children.

True, the hopelessness is in the adults. And it's usually not a matter of being in an impossible situation, it's a matter of lacking the knowledge of how to improve their situation (I'm more familiar with latin america, so Africa could be completely different, I don't know).

Anyway, why are you going to Africa? I've wanted to go, but I don't really have a reason, and I'm not going to go just to stare at people.

I'll wait

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll wait for the surreal Johnny Appleseed exhibit.

Re:I'll wait

[MightyMartian]

"And this picture we see the tin pot wearing Johnny Appleseed and distributing Spam to all the starving earthworms in the New York subway system."

Damn it

[Crashmarik]

Next you will be telling me that Paul Bunyan didn't have a giant blue ox named babe or Pecos Bill didn't tame a tornado.

Re:Damn it

[Anonymous Coward]

John Henry was not a steel driving man. He used a Wood.

bringing booze to a thirsty frontier

[Anonymous Coward]

Back in his day, hard cider was the dominant form of alcoholic beverage in the frontier. Easy to make, easy to grow. Beer requires growing grain, then processing, and fermenting, and storing. Grapes don't grow in the area.

Re:bringing booze to a thirsty frontier

[rogoshen1]

this absolutely.

Re:bringing booze to a thirsty frontier

[Ultracrepidarian]

And then, there was Hopalong Cassidy.

Re:bringing booze to a thirsty frontier

[mrsquid0]

Johnny Appleseed brought reliable apple trees and apple jack to western Ohio. It was the apple jack that made him successful. There are also stories that he had a ten-year-old bride. Mr Chapman was not quite the person that folk mythology portrays him as.

Re:bringing booze to a thirsty frontier

[Anonymous Coward]

John Chapman was substantially earlier.. think late 1700s, early 1800s, back when "frontier" was just over the mountains from the east coast. No trains, not even wagon trains, out west. The idea of farming large areas of grain really didn't come about until post-railroad, or late 1800s.
There was some whiskey production in colonial times, but rum was also popular (viz: triangle trade), but I suspect that transportation costs to the frontier was excessive. And besides, your thirsty farmer/hunter/pioneer probably wasn't looking for high proof distilled spirits, rather, they sought a replacement for the omnipresent beer and ale of the old country. The whole fermentation thing helps with pathogens too (or, at least, if you do have pathogens, your fermentation will smell and look "off", and you can discard it). Much like how fermentation in sausages helps suppress pathogenic anaerobic growth (like botulism).

Corn (maize) as a base for fermentation got started early in the corn growing areas (Tennessee, Kentucky), but up in Ohio, Pennsylvania, etc., I don't think corn grows very well. Apples, on the other hand, grow great, and tolerate (nay, demand) the freeze of winter. Apples also preserve well (a barrel of apples packed in straw will last a long time in a cellar, although as we know, one bad apple can spoil the bushel). Fermented corn mush is not particularly appetizing, and I suppose one can make corn beer, but if it were any good at all, surely modern craft brewers would be making it. It's probably not a great grain compared to the more popular barley, wheat and rice. (Yes, modern commercial beer probably has substantial corn in it, because, hey, fermenting HFCS gives you nice ethanol, which you can filter and blend with anything)

Commercial whiskey production in the US probably came about when it got popular in the UK, which in turn was due to a change in taxation and the lack of port/sherry. The industrial revolution made distillation on a production scale possible (since you use steam to heat the wort in the still) and you need "big" equipment to do 1000 gallon batches. I don't think they were hammering out big sheets of copper in 1795 in the frontier.

By the time of "real men and the wild west", you're talking post railroad, post large scale agriculture with feedlots and so forth, so, yeah, whiskey manufacture (from any of several grains) would be quite popular, and the train and barge made it possible to send carloads of whiskey barrels into the west (e.g. Dodge City.. hardly "west" compared to California, but that was west back then).

Re:bringing booze to a thirsty frontier

[HornWumpus]

Wheat and rice are just like corn. Crap for making 'beer' with. Source for pure ethanol with little flavor (rice) or bad sour flavor (wheat). If 'beer' tastes better with the yeast still in it or mixed with fruit juice, it's bad 'beer'.

To get the quotes off 'beer' you can only use malted barley.

Re:bringing booze to a thirsty frontier

[tomhath]

Whiskey was also a convenient way to market corn. Ferment it, distill the alcohol, and sent it down the river to St. Louis or New Orleans. Then feed the leftovers to the pigs.

Re:bringing booze to a thirsty frontier

[ColdWetDog]

That's right. He was an early eco-terrorist, spreading invasive species throughout the country.

Re:bringing booze to a thirsty frontier

[slashdice]

You've heard of the Whiskey rebellion, right?

Farmers living west of the Appalachian Mountains distilled their excess grain into whiskey, which was easier and more profitable to transport over the mountains than the more cumbersome grain. A whiskey tax would make western farmers less competitive with eastern grain producers.[13] Additionally, cash was always in short supply on the frontier, so whiskey often served as a medium of exchange. For poorer people who were paid in whiskey, the excise was essentially an income tax that wealthier easterners did not pay.[14]

Corn grows just fine in the northeast, BTW. Irish/Scottish immigrants (the kind of people who make whiskey) were familiar with rye and barley. Rye, being more or less a weed, grew better so they made rye whiskey. Kentucky settlers were offered 400 acres if they built a house and planted corn so they also ended up with corn whiskey.

Re:bringing booze to a thirsty frontier

[Crudely_Indecent]

This is what I understood about the Johnny Appleseed story.

Apple seeds don't necessarily grow sweet apples. Some are sour. Modern eating apples are grafts from trees that product sweet fruit, while seedlings are a crap shoot.

Old and young alike consumed hard cider (children were given a watered down version) because of waterborne illness. You couldn't trust the water, but you could trust that your hard cider would be safe.

Re:bringing booze to a thirsty frontier

[oldmac31310]

Interesting. So they ate corn mash prior to the introduction of donuts?

The Johnny Appleseed Reality Tour

[93 Escort Wagon]

Includes a pizza bagel and a bite size Snickers for dessert!

News for Nerds you say?

[ArchieBunker]

Oh yeah tons of nerdy tech stuff in this article.

Re:News for Nerds you say?

[ColdWetDog]

In case you've missed it, we've had plenty of articles on drugs (alcohol is a drug), distillation (chemistry) and taxation (cue the innumerable posts on taxation, etc.). This fits right in.

Stifle yourself.

Re:News for Nerds you say?

[dugancent]

Better than the repetitive Android/Apple shit that gets posted over and over again.

I'll wait for the simulation

[Zero__Kelvin]

I'll wait for the simulated Johhny Appleseed. Then at least there will be an actual reason to post the story on Slashdot.

The Botany of Desire has a great chapter on J.A.

[F34nor]

Alcohol production! Genetic Diversity! Microclimate!

http://michaelpollan.com/books...

Johnny Weedyseed

[n3r0.m4dski11z]

How about a modern day guy who roams the countryside with marijuana clones. I have often dreamt about scattering seeds in all the ditches of the land.

Re:Johnny Weedyseed

[sound vision]

Mr. Weedseed is a cool guy, but not as cool as Mr. Shroomspore or Mr. Peyoteplanter.

He was anti GMO

[digsbo]

He was among the first anti-GMO crusaders. As I recall, he followed some fringe Christian mystic dude who was against the genetic engineering of apple trees via grafting. Which isn't good, because apples are polyploid, and can't reliably be grown from seed. That's why they're grafted.

Re:He was anti GMO

[ChromeAeonium]

That's close, but not entirely true. Some apple trees are triploid, like Gravenstein and Jonagold, but most are diploid, so not really polyploid. Apple seeds will grow just fine, but the reason they are grafted is because they are very heterozygous, and as such, any seedlings will not have the same genetic characteristics as the original parent apples, and in all likelihood will be inferior. When people breed apple trees, they can go through thousands of seedlings only to find one tree with superior fruit. By grafting, you keep the superior genetics of an exceptional fruit, like Honeycrisp. Most fruit crops are reproduced asexually in some way for this reason, with the exception of cantaloupe, watermelon, and papaya, which have much shorter lifespans, and as such are much easier to work with. Trees are also grafted because, by using mature plant material, the tree will come to bearing faster, and you can select rootstock that offers dwarfing and disease resistance traits, which are useful.

You are right that he was against grafting though, proclaiming that it was wicked, damaging, and against the will of God. Unfortunately, judging by the modern opposition to GMOs, humanity did not learn anything from his silliness. Today, we have opposition to the Arctic apples, which hopefully will be released soon, which have the relatively simple trait of non-browning. Anti-GMO people claim they are worried that GMO apples will cross pollinate other apples, despite the simple fact that apples are asexually propagated. That's right, these folks don't know the first, most basic things about apple biology, but damn it they're going to pound in their stupid point anyway no matter how wrong they are. Ridiculous.

Re:He was anti GMO

[tricorn]

My parents have an apple tree growing in the front that has apples that don't brown at all. They taste pretty good as well, and don't seem to have much of a problem with insects. I have no idea if the tree was grown from ra andom seed from an apple or what its lineage is, I don't think it's been grafted. Does that mean it's potentially worth something?

BTW, regarding the article - that's Urbana, Ohio. There's more than one Urbana (e.g. Urbana, Illinois, with the University of Illinois, not Urbana University). That confused me briefly!

Re:Am i on Slashdot? "Johnny appleseed exhibit"?

[pslytely psycho]

"Am i on Slashdot? Wait!!? is this buzz feed or some shite?!

"News for nerds, Stuff that matters - > is now -> Any shit we can post to get a few more random add impressions.

I mean people are engaging with the story too, the quality of comments you're creating by the stories your posting and the audience youre drawing 're getting close Youtube comments or Yahoo"

From your friendly DICE overlords:

Most certainly you are on Slashdot! It's new, it's improved, and if you didn't notice, it is no longer news for nerds, we dropped that tired old tagline. And really, stuff that matters?
We are changing the site to make it really about stuff that matters! So we no longer need to proclaim it in the name!
Next week, we are going to start the first of many Sub-Slashdots. We have hired a number of people to write stories and comments and expect the Miley Cyrus Sub-Slashdot up and running soon.
At that time the main Slashdot page will be devoted to Kim Kardashian as we seek to improve the revenue and readership.
We know you will love the new formats!

Your BFF's
Dice Holdings

Re:Am i on Slashdot? "Johnny appleseed exhibit"?

[pslytely psycho]

The really scary part of this article is that there is so much serious discussion about it.

Maybe we all should add a sockpuppet account and flood the submissions with Kardashian and the like just to see how much of it makes it through and just go ahead and kill the site quickly rather than watch it decline slowly into a popular general nonsense site.

I will miss Slashdot, but yeah, come join us hippies! Pipedot in particular could use more submitters and it has a very nice interface. Bryan is kinda doing it 'lone wolf' style, and most of the birthing drama with Soylent has passed. I would like to see both grow and replace Slashdot.

Fun apple tree fact

[TheOriginalRevdoc]

Apple trees don't breed true from seed. If you have a tree that produces nice-tasting apples, trees grown from its seeds are unlikely to produce nice-tasting apples. For that reason, apples are always propagated by cuttings. So why did Johnny plant apple seeds? Because you can use any old sour-tasting apple to make cider. That's right. Johhny Appleseed was a one-man booze promoter.

Re:Fun apple tree fact

[Bing Tsher E]

Also, apple vinegar. And apple butter is pretty good to spread on your bread like a jam. And it all works pretty well with apples that are definitely not 'direct eaters' like the modern hybrids.

Re:Am i on Slashdot? "Johnny appleseed exhibit"?

[Harvey Manfrenjenson]

I would argue that American history is a perfectly good topic for a Slashdot article. Look, I read Slashdot because it attracts a decent number of highly educated or knowledgable commenters, and I think that's still likely to be the case when the topic is a historical one.

I'm not disagreeing with you on the whole pre-DICE/post-DICE quality issue, since I don't really have an opinion on that. I just think this article was fine and you chose the wrong example to pick on.

Re:Am i on Slashdot? "Johnny appleseed exhibit"?

[pslytely psycho]

It is just not the type of article I come to Slashdot for. I love history and absolutely agree with your sentiments about educated and knowledgeable commentators being drawn to such an article.
To me, this particular article just seems out of place.
Which is of course only a Pslytely Psycho opinion...;)

And I just couldn't resist a DICE troll....just for the fun of it.

Re:Am i on Slashdot? "Johnny appleseed exhibit"?

[Bing Tsher E]

I detest 'IT' types who are so frenetic about 'slashdot changing.' It's always been more interesting than the dull software shit that some seem to think should be the main /. focus.

But then, I'm a nerd. That's right. I still have a sizable hoard of #30 wire-wrap wire, though I haven't owned a solder-pot in years. I read articles about, but haven't taken a plunge toward, home-made steam and gasoline engines. I have computers with Microsoft software on them from before MS-DOS existed. I have a Fluke Differential Voltmeter, though I don't make everyday use of it. I haven't powered up my frequency standard in quite awhile, but I bet it still emits a clean 10,000,000.00 Hz (approx.) frequency. I have four impedance bridges. A good (Mullen) Grid-Dip Meter. The first Hewlett-Packard computer I ever programmed had core memory in it. But now I'm getting way tangential. The fact that I remember and know this stuff means I'm a nerd.

Grow and replace Slashdot? Good luck. Make sure less than 30% of the 'nerds' on your site program javascript for a living.

Michael Pollan's "Botany of Desire"

[alfredo]

Speaks at length about John Chapman. Apples were for Apple Jack, not eating. In his book he speaks of four plants, the Apple, Tulip, Potato, and Marijuana, and how they manipulate us into a mutually beneficial relationship. I'm a big fan of his books on food.

Re:Am i on Slashdot? "Johnny appleseed exhibit"?

[alfredo]

Chapman's spread of Apples was a solution to the bad water problem. Making the apples into Apple Jack sterilized the water. The alcohol in the Jack didn't freeze as readily as pure water. Straining out the icy slush made the Jack stronger, and less likely to freeze. So when your stream is frozen, there's some Jack to drink.

John Appleseed ?

[psergiu]

Any connection to that John Appleseed guy that appears in all the Apple keynotes ?

It's not about the fruit.

[Reziac]

Chapman's apple-planting was never about the fruit (nor did TFA go into it). What it was really about was CIDER -- hard cider in areas that didn't yet raise enough barley for beer, or lacked the quality of soil for grain crops, frex in rocky areas like the Appalachians. Beer (which then meant thick stuff with a lot of nutritional value) and cider are how you preserve grain and fruit when you don't have secure dry storage or refrigeration (not that fruit keeps very well at its best). That the end product contains alcohol, well, that was a side benefit.