How Do You Like Them Apples?

"[H]ard cider was the fate of most apples grown in America up until Prohibition ... The reason people in Brilliant [Ohio] wanted [Johnny Appleseed] to stay and plant a nursery was the same reason he would soon be welcome in every cabin in Ohio: Johnny Appleseed was bringing the gift of alcohol to the frontier."

--Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire, p. 9.