This is an old German proverb similar in meaning to the English “a chip off the old block”. It can be used in many situations. The fact that apples don’t fall far from the trunk, since they are too heavy to fly, has not hindered their dissemination all over the world.
Apples are originally from Central Asia in today’s Kazakhstan. More than 2000 years ago the Greeks and Romans spread their cultivation all over Europe. Since any apple pip can be the origin of an entirely new variety, there is a huge diversity of apple varieties today. As long ago as in Roman times, it was understood that a specific, popular variety of apple could only be reproduced by taking the wood of this variety and inserting it into another younger tree. This process is known as grafting.
More than 70 million tons of apples are grown in the world every year, making apples the most popular fruit world-wide.
