It's apple season again in Wisconsin -- the perfect time to take a look back at the history of the world's most widely grown and eaten fruit.
"Wisconsin Life" editor and producer Erika Janik is the author of "Apple: A Global History," a book that examines the fruit's origins and uses. She said about 14,000 apple varieties have been cultivated in North America alone, but this "American icon" doesn't actually come from the United States.
"Apples have really managed to make themselves at home basically all over the world, so that they do really seem like a native fruit. But apples are actually from very far away from here. They're actually from Kazakhstan, in Central Asia, " she said.
Apples aren't the only fruit originally from Kazakhstan, she said. At least 150 other plant species originate from the region or are close relatives to plant life there, including raspberries, peaches and plums. She said animals and humans moving through the mountains in Central Asia helped to spread apples around the world.
Luckily, apples made their way to North America when European explorers and colonists came to the New World," Janik said.
Now, the apple is as American as, well, apple pie.
