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Fresh apples, sliced apples, apple pie, apple crisp, apple sauce, apple tart, apple butter, apple cider, apple turnover, apple strudel, apple jelly, apple fritter, apple chutney....
OK, you get the idea -- apples are everywhere.
In fact, apples are the most popular fruit in Canada and apples are one of the Okanagan's most important crops with 140 million pounds of the fruit grown in the Valley annually.
All these are good reasons to celebrate National Apple Day today.
Of course, it's an easy day in which to partake.
Just bite into a fresh apple or eat the ubiquitous fruit in any one of its incarnations listed above.
Apples don't just taste good, they are good for you because they're packed with antioxidants, fibre, potassium and vitamins C and K.
Apples have been growing on trees in the wild for thousands of years.
But, the fruit as we know it today -- larger, sweeter and more edible -- was likely cultivated and developed by the Romans in the 17th century BC.
While apples are paramount to Okanagan agriculture, Canada really isn't a big player on the world stage, ranking 32nd on the list of the biggest apple producing countries.
China tops the list, followed by the US, Turkey, Poland, India and Italy.
The world over, about 195 billion pounds of apples are grown every year.
National Apple Day started in 1990 in London, England with an event at Covent Garden to recognize the importance of apples, orchards and farmers.
The celebration of the apple has since spread across the globe.
The most popular varieties of apples grown on the Okanagan's 7,500 acres of apple orchard are Gala, Ambrosia, McIntosh and Spartan.
But you'll also find Sunrise, Ginger Gold, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Honeycrisp and Pink Lady.
The Okanagan is considered a premium apple region and the grade A fruit, distributed across the country and around the world by local packinghouses and their marketing arms, can fetch $2 to $3 a pound in the grocery store and at the market.
By the way, apple's most-popular-fruit-in-the-
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