A Tree (No Longer) Grows In Queens

Apples travel to the fourth National Apple show. Postcard by Arcadia Orchards Company of Spokane, Washington in the early 1900's

Long, long ago, when Queens was field and farm and forest (imagine that!), Newtown Pippin apple trees produced brimming bushel baskets of green-skinned, yellow-fleshed fruit.

Celebrated by royalty (Queen Victoria) and 18th-Century movers and shakers (Ben Franklin and Tom Jefferson) alike, informed palates gushed over this "prince of apples" with effusive praise.

This week, NY Mayor Bloomberg has declared the Newtown Pippin the official apple of New York City, and commemorated "Apple Week" (Oct 11-17) with all manner of "appletivities" produced by the fine folks at Slow Food NYC.

All this is bittersweet news for the long-forgotten Newtown Pippin, since it unfortunately highlights the environmental low to which the fruit's fatherland has sunk. Today's Newtown Creek area is a polluted, scarred industrial wasteland that produces nothing "eaten and praised by royal lips". Instead, this neighborhood boasts the "Most Polluted Waterway In America". Wouldn't it be nice to see the Newtown Pippin's spotlight shine just a little light on the woes of its native soil?