Whether Jonagolds or Ida Reds, the apple provides Midwesterners with both a versatile food and a powerful archetype of their culture and heritage. Lucy M. Long examines the ubiquitous fruit’s place in regional culture and its role in how people in the Midwest think of themselves and the wider world. Long guides readers to festivals and introduces them to orchard owners while tracing the history of how apples became a central part of Midwesterners’ landscape, leisure, tables, and way of life. Johnny Appleseed folklore, sustainability and the apple business, the meanings behind the Grand Rapids Applebutter Fest, a recipe for apple caramel cheesecake—Long reveals a quintessential American fruit in all its glory.

Lively and surprising, Sweet, Tart, and Golden blends food history with on-the-ground exploration to tell the multifaceted story of the apple.

Lucy M. Long is the founder and director of the Center for Food and Culture. Her books include Culinary Tourism: Eating and Otherness.

“Sweet, Tart, and Golden is a fascinating narrative of place, food, and region in the American Midwest. Through the lens of the seemingly ‘ordinary’ apple, folklorist Lucy Long argues that Midwesterners have plenty to say about agricultural economies, industrialization, sustainable food systems, and the meaning of heritage. As Long writes, ‘just like people, apples and the Midwest are full of contradictions and complexities that are not visible at first.’ This wonderful book unveils apple stories that are at the heart of both the Midwestern and American experience.”
—Marcie Cohen Ferris, editor of Edible North Carolina: A Journey across a State of Flavor

“Folklorist Lucy Long’s highly readable, well-researched Sweet, Tart, and Golden explores the history and development of apples, particularly in Midwestern life. She addresses crucial issues in foodways studies, such as symbolism, food choice, meanings, memories, aesthetics, identity, sense of place, heritage, and more. She seamlessly integrates observations at festivals, interviews, historical documents, museum exhibits, and stories of her and her family’s own experiences. This is a book to savor!”
—Michael Owen Jones, author of Corn: A Global History