" An apple a day keeps the doctor away, " you say ? Did you know
that people who work in cider, vinegar and applesauce plants often
suffer fewer colds and other respiratory ailments than the rest of
us? Or that if apples and apple juice are substituted for citrus in
the diet, arthritic conditions are improved ?

A little apple juice boiled with cinnamon helps settle an upset
stomach. As early as the 13th Century, baked apples served with a
few caraway seeds were recommended for post dinner digestive. The
tradition of serving applesauce with pork and goose stems from the
fact that the acids in the apple help the digestion of other foods.

Indeed, the unsweetened juice of the apple can help reduce
acidity of the stomach. Raw sour apples are stewed apples help cure
even severe cases of constipation. Hot apple juice with or without
honey helps sooth sore throats.

But apples are cultivated not only for their medicinal properties
and culinary uses, they can also have a very important place in myth
and legend.

Apple is one of the Celtic holy trees, one of the woods from
which magic rune staves could be carved, and from which the Druids
gathered their secret mistletoe symbol of healing and fertility.

Avalon, the island to which the dying King Arthur was taken, was
called " The Isle Of Apples "; it was thought to be the Garden of
Hesperides, where Jason and the Argonauts came to find the golden
apples of immortality.

The much maligned apple of the Garden of Eden was probably a
pomegranate. Other, familiar legends have evil witches and
sorcerers poisoning or turning apples into love charms to surprise
the unwary.

At one time, I actually came across an old spell for making a love apple:

Take a 2 colored apple. Breathe on the green part and rub the red
part with red flannel. Then say, " Fire sweet and fire red, warm the
heart and turn the head. " Kiss the red part and give it to your
intended. When it's eaten he/she is yours !! Enough tales. Let's
take our apples to the kitchen.