Ruchira suggests that winter brings oranges and apples, which are nutrient-rich and beneficial for immunity and overall health, exclusively for Different Truths.
It is time for folks to reach out for two popular fruits namely oranges and apples. These wonder fruits keep us going throughout the winter months.
It might come as a surprise that these winter fruits are poles apart in terms of nomenclature. The word “apple” may be traced back to the Proto-Germanic aplaz. The Old English word for “apple” was æppel, which in turn was the ancestor of the Middle English word appel. In Old English “apple” denoted any fruit with a hardcore and chewable exterior. Did you know that the French name for apple is “pomme,” derived from the Latin word pomum, which means “fruit”? In French “pomme” is used to refer to any type of fruit e.g. Pomme d’Or (gold fruit, archaic name for tomato) or pomme de terre (potato, fruit of soil).
The antecedents of orange are more interesting. The name may be traced back to Dravidian languages nāram (Tamil) nāriṃja (Telugu) nāraŋŋa (Malayalam) In Sanskrit ‘nāraṅgaḥ’ denotes “orange tree”. Subsequently, the word entered Persian and Arabic getting transformed into nārang and nāranj in that order. Under the impact of linguistic cross currents the initial “n” was dropped in French and other Mediterranean languages. The word entered English as “orange” During the Islamic conquests of India the Arabs discovered the fruit and later during their European invasion, took it to Spain. The Spanish word for orange is Naranja!!
These fruits are similar in many ways. Both can be consumed as liquid as juices though the orange may be turned into squash; for general information squash contains a minimum quantity of juice. But both are equally enjoyable. Apples can be made into jams, while the orange is the basic component for preparing marmalade. With one major difference of course. Jams may use many types of fruits while a ‘citrus fruit’ is mandatory for marmalade. In addition, the rind of the fruit too must be incorporated into the basic mishmash.
Regarding apples, paediatricians often advise new moms to feed boiled mashed apples to their infants since apples contain plenty of vitamins and a dash of protein, which is highly beneficial for their little ones. And haven’t we all heard the centuries-old (English) adage, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away?”
Apart from its nutritional properties, the apple is also acknowledged as an object of Beauty. No wonder lovely young native women of Kashmir-and from other states as well – are universally referred to as Kashmiri seb, since the fruit (sebin lingua franca) grows freely and abundantly in the exquisitely beautiful valley.
Akin to the apple, the orange is a veritable storehouse of Vitamin C, Potassium, antioxidants and fibres. It can work wonders for overall skin health. Orange is a panacea for cough and cold. For the beauty-conscious femme, orange proves to be a sheer blessing…its various parts form basic ingredients in packs, face masks as well as a whole lot of beauty/skincare products.
Geographically too, apples and oranges are divergent. The apple is native to Central Asia, comprising the Tian Shan Mountain range and territories of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and China, where their original wild varieties grow even today. Many varieties of apples were brought to India by Islamic invaders in the 14th century. Later the Mughals who greatly patronized horticulture grafted many local varieties with Central Asian ones. During the Mughal era, apple cultivation prospered mainly in and around the Kashmir region.
Few of us might know about how apples were brought into Himachal Pradesh. The credit for this goes to Satyananda Stokes an American missionary who settled in India, converted to Hinduism, and later participated in the Indian freedom struggle. He imported strains of apples from his native Pennsylvania (USA) and introduced its cultivation in his ‘adopted home’ state. Today apples are a major horticultural export crop of Himachal. Kashmir & Himachal Pradesh are familiarly hailed as apple orchards of India.
Oranges, on the other hand, grow prolifically in the warm tropical belt of South and Southeast Asia including southern parts of China, Northeastern India and Myanmar. In the medieval period, the brave Maratha warriors who had extended their domain to northern India carried orange cultivars back to their native state.
While Nagpur in Maharashtra has long remained a bastion of oranges in the country, Cherapunji in Meghalaya is fast evolving as the land of oranges in Northeast India.
On a personal note, I don’t quite relish fruits per se, except mango and banana. Nevertheless, I do enjoy sipping apple and orange juices, at breakfast or otherwise, occasionally.
So, what are you waiting for?? Go, grab these ‘tonic’ fruits to stay healthy through the season!
Picture design by Anumita Roy
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