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All aboard, we're off to the 2023 Apple Festival at the University of British Columbia, to taste some apples and, most importantly, enjoy some apple names. And before that, we return to the classic Sporklusionist applesode to refresh our memory about how apple names are chosen - eponyms, portmanteaus, geography, or corporate R&D, just like how our ancestors named apples.

EXTRA MATERIALS:

If you want to go to the UBC Apple Festival next October, put a note in your calendar mid-September 2024 to buy tickets.
Notes on some of this year’s featured apples.
Find an apple festival near you.
Origin of the expression, “How do you like them apples?”
Listen to the Sporkful’s companion episode to the Applelusionist, A New Apple Is Born.
Our podpals at Ologies just released a Pomology episode, full of apple facts.
Martin mentioned Chuck Tingle, have you listened to me reading his story Monday Pounds Me In The Butt?
Check out the original post for the Apples episode for lots of links to apple reading matter.
Otherlusionists: Hannah McGregor appears in the Sentiment episode. And there are several episode about food.
Scroll down for photos from the apple festival.

Support the show at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you also get behind-the-scenes glimpses about every episode, fortnightly livestreams, and the delightful Allusioverse Discord community. We are currently watching the 2023 season of Great British Bake Off together.

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YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
kenning, noun: a compound expression in Old English and Old Norse poetry with metaphorical meaning, e.g. oar-steed = ship.
Origin 19th century: from Old Norse, from kenna 'know, perceive’; related to ‘ken’.

CREDITS:

Dan Pashman hosts The Sporkful podcast - head to the Sporkful podfeed or sporkful.com to listen to the companion episode where we learn about how new varietals of apples are made.
Kate Evans, Kathryn Grandy and Joanna Crosby explain the history of apple names and the current process for coining new ones.
My companions at the apple festival are Hannah McGregor of Material Girls podcast, and Martin Austwick of Song By Song and Neutrino Watch podcasts.
The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, on the unceded ancestral and traditional territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Find the Allusionist at youtube.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, @allusionistshow.bsky.social and instagram.com/allusionistshow

Back in two weeks with a new episode that’ll help if you found it difficult to tolerate the sounds of apple-eating in this one - HZ.

Martin, Hannah and Helen mug for the camera underneath a red apple-shaped Apple Festival sign that is suspended from a tree branch. Hannah holds a long bag of popcorn

Lots of apples! I should bloody well hope so too

the apple festival tasting tent, full of people eating small cubes of many varietals of apples

The Fameuse or Snow Apple, with white flesh and deep red skin. Small pieces of this apple sit on a plate next to a few whole apples and an information card about the apple

Northern Spy in disguise

apple shapes, there are nine

The Brown Snout apple, “Moderate vigour, upright, slow to bear, often biennial. Subject to splitting at crotches.”

A red apple-shaped sign on a fence, it says “Best Apple Display in Canada, presented by BC Fruit Testers”

this is the aforementioned Best Apple Display in Canada, with tables holding rows of different fancy apples - look don’t touch and definitely don’t eat

Granny Smith herself

spin the wheel of apple trivia

Applefest 2023 washington strawberry.jpg

$Applefest 2023 apple math.jpeg$ apple shapes, there are nine

TL;DR version:

For the show's financial survival (hopefully), over the next few weeks I'm having to switch on programmatic advertisements. This means, for the first time in the show's nearly 12-year existence, you may be subjected to ads that are not voiced, scripted and individually approved by me.

If you would prefer to listen to the show without ads in it, patreonise the show at the Gravy, Wedge or Check tiers, which include the perk of an ad-free RSS feed.

Click through to read the rest of the post about why I’m doing this thing I don’t want to do.

sorry lads, we're getting bad ads

For the show's financial survival (hopefully), over the next few weeks I'm having to switch on programmatic advertisements. This means, for the first time in the show's nearly 12-year existence, you may be subjected to ads that are not voiced, scripted and individually approved by me.
If you would prefer to listen to the show without ads in it, patreonise the show at the Gravy, Wedge or Check tiers, which include the perk of an ad-free RSS feed.