Not many people have their 234th birthday celebrated by the kindergartners and first graders at Charles Wright. But since John Chapman, better known as Johnny Appleseed, had the good sense to be born in the heart of Washington’s apple season, his birthday was celebrated in style here this week.

Most students learn a little about apples at some point during their education. Perhaps they learn about their nutritional value in a health class, or their asexual reproduction during biology, but for kids growing up in Washington state, the apple is especially important.

Between mid-August and November, Washington orchardists harvest between ten and 12 billion apples. Here in Washington, apples can easily form the basis of a geography, economics or history lesson.

Every apple is hand-picked and it takes 35,000 to 45,000 trained apple pickers to do the job. The state produces more than half of the apples grown in the United States and they are eaten in more than forty countries.

While more than 2,500 varieties of apples are grown in the United States today, only one is native to North America – the crab apple. The apples we eat originated in Kazakhstan and were carried east by traders on the Silk Road.

The most popular apple, the Red Delicious, began life as a chance seedling on an Iowa farm. Apple seeds are like people; you will never get the exact same type of apple from a planted seed. That’s why most apples trees are grafted to produce particular varieties of the fruit.

The mass production of apple tress is where Johnny Appleseed comes in. He may be the only horticulturist to become a national hero. He planted apple orchards in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Ohio. After 200 years, some of those trees still bear apples.

And so, on his 234th birthday, the kindergarteners and first graders at Charles Wright celebrated Johnny Appleseed’s life work by pressing apples into cider, painting pictures of apple trees with finger paints, and listening to stories about the man that spread compassion and apple seeds across the country.

To see more pictures of the Apple Squeeze, visit our online photo album: photos.charleswright.org.

Did you know?

10 – 12 billion apples are handpicked in Washington State each year.

Each Washington apple is picked by hand. There are no harvest machines to pick apples.

If you put all of the Washington State apples picked in a year side-by-side, they would circle the Earth 12 times.

Americans eat approximately 19.6 pounds of fresh apples annually, compared to about 46 pounds consumed annually by residents of European countries.

Apples are the largest agricultural product grown in Washington State.

Learn more from the Washington State Apple Commission at www.bestapples.com.