Sweet, Tart, and Golden: Apples in the Midwestern Imagination by Lucy M. Long

Whether Jonagolds or Ida Reds, the apple provides Midwesterners with both a versatile food and a powerful archetype of their culture and heritage. In Sweet, Tart, and Golden (University of Illinois Press, 2026), 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.

Dr. Lucy M. Long is a folklorist, musician, mother, cook, and consumer of most things edible. She is the founder and director of the Center for Food and Culture.

Sweet, Tart, and Golden is part of the Heartland Foodways series published by the University of Illinois Press. Publication of this book was supported in part by a grant from the L. J. and Mary C. Skaggs Folklore Fund.