Sagwa (apple)

Sagwa is the cultivated apple, a deciduous tree of the rose family (the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture lists it as Malus pumila). Korea long grew a small native apple, neunggeum, but the improved Western apple is a recent arrival. According to the encyclopedia, missionaries brought a few trees from 1884, mostly grown as curiosities; commercial growing began in 1901, when Yun Byeong-su planted an orchard near Wonsan with saplings obtained through an American missionary, and in 1906 a government horticultural station at Ttukseom in Seoul began trialing imported fruit varieties.

Daegu became the name most tied to Korean apples. Local histories credit Woodbridge Johnson, the American medical missionary who founded the Jejungwon clinic that grew into Dongsan Hospital, with planting 72 saplings of three varieties from the United States at his house in Namsan-dong; accounts date the planting to 1899 or 1903. The Daegu history encyclopedia says these trees were spread and grafted with native neunggeum to produce the so-called Daegu apple. A descendant of Johnson's surviving tree still grows at the hospital's missionary museum. Rapid urbanization and a warming climate have since pushed most orchards out of the city; a 2019 report counted about 160 apple farms left, mainly in Pyeonggwang-dong.

Production has always centered on Gyeongsang: the encyclopedia's 1980s figures put about two-thirds of the national crop in Gyeongsangbuk-do. Counties such as Cheongsong in Gyeongbuk and Yesan in Chungcheongnam-do are now known for their apples, and both are registered geographical indications; in a 2011 government survey, Cheongsong was the apple region consumers recognized most. Varieties shifted in the early 1970s, when Fuji (busa) and other Japanese cultivars replaced the older Gukgwang and Hongok, and the early green Tsugaru, sold as aori, became the apple of the Chuseok season.

Most apples are eaten raw, usually peeled and cut into wedges; the rest go into juice, cider vinegar, jam and dried fruit. Grated apple is also a common sweetener in marinades and kimchi seasonings.

• Whole fruit: Per the Korean Food Composition Table, apples are low in fat and sodium and provide fiber and potassium; eating the peel keeps more of the fiber.
• Natural sugars: Most of an apple's calories come from its sugars, so apple juice and syrups concentrate sugar without the fiber; see sugar in Korean food.
• Pollen-food allergy: The American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology lists apple among foods commonly linked to birch-pollen food allergy syndrome, which causes an itchy mouth or throat after eating raw fruit; cooked apple is usually tolerated.
• Wash before eating: The FDA advises rinsing produce under running water before peeling or cutting, so surface dirt and bacteria are not carried onto the flesh.