A comment on my recent video about making Apple Bread reminded me of something Pap and Granny always said.
I literally eat an apple almost everyday of the world. I like my apples on the sweet side with a real crunch. Granny and Pap liked their apples meller, which meant they liked them on the soft side.
I looked in the “Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English” to see if there was an entry for meller in relation to an apple and this is what I found.
mellow
A Variant forms meller.
1925 (in 1935 Edwards NC Novels 88) meller. c1950 (in 2000 Oakley Roamin’ Man 44) Thar is no master yit has found entrancing pictures to behold with the green and brown and yellow all the red meller gold all the colors of the rainbow in the morning.
B verb To make (something, as a person’s head) soft or tender by beating (it) to a pulp. c1960 Wilson Coll. = to beat, smash, whether an apple or a head. 1974 Fink Bits Mt Speech 16 = to beat. “I’ll meller his head if he pesters me.” 1998 Montgomery Coll (known to Adams, Brown, Bush, Cardwell), = to make mellow, as a mellow (soft) apple (Jones), = to mellar a nose is to beat it until it is soft and squishy (Ledford). 2005 Williams Gratitude 509 There’s also a threat said as “I’ll meller yer head for ye.” Mellerin’ yer head usually meant rubbin’ it real hard with the knuckles, but could be a lot worse.
Granny and Pap’s meller apple usage is at least mentioned in the dictionary entry, although it’s mostly about beating 🙂 I’ve never heard meller used in relation to giving someone a pounding, but The Deer Hunter said he’d heard it.
Last night’s video: Harvesting the Last of the Garden.
Tipper
Subscribe for FREE and get a daily dose of Appalachia in your inbox
31 Comments
Betty Jo Eason Benedict
October 2, 2021 at 8:53 amMy Mom preferred a soft apple…..usually Yellow if I recall……but she called them a”Mealy Apple”. We had a small apple orchard when we lived in Iowa…….Jonathon quickly became my favorite. On a cold Oct morning a crispy Iowa apple on the way to work was the best I’ve ever had!
Rita F Speers
October 3, 2021 at 9:45 amGrowing up, I heard both terms…meller and mealy used. In my mind, I considered mealy apples to be dryer than meller apples.
Kevin Knight
October 1, 2021 at 10:49 pmMy favorite apple is a New England Cortland that has been frost bit, they are slightly crisp, juicy and sweet. My pick for a meller apple is golden delicious.
Gigi
October 1, 2021 at 8:50 pmI love apples. I like my kinda on the crunchy side too. I love making Apple Butter. So good. I love the bread too.
Jackie
October 1, 2021 at 8:14 pmThe more I do to it
Jackie
October 1, 2021 at 8:13 pmI have often threatened to give someone a “Do Bigger”. That’s a knot on the head that the more I DO to the BIGGER it will get.
Garland Davis
October 1, 2021 at 5:52 pmMy Granny Salmons always wanted a “meller” apple. Her store-bought teeth didn’t fit well and it was easier for her to eat the meller ones.
Cynthia
October 1, 2021 at 4:41 pmI like crisp apples, not too tart. I have to cut my apples in small pieces because I have a front tooth that broke off and had to be repaired. No more biting into a whole apple.
Janette Auditor
October 1, 2021 at 4:24 pmI have never heard of ‘Meller’yer’ head, but I have heard ‘Scob yer knob’ for rubbing someone’s head real hard. Have you ever heard that? I’m with you on the crispy, sweet apples! Right now my favorite is Honeycrisp from Washington. I think there is a newer apple coming out of Washington called Cosmos but I haven’t tried it yet. Hope your family is well.
Bob Louis
October 1, 2021 at 3:28 pmI enjoy your posts about words that are fading and need to be remembered. Part of my family is Pa. Dutch, and my mother would sometimes call me a little rutsch- a child who can’t sit still.
dee
October 1, 2021 at 12:59 pmI liked my apples crisp and sweet or a little tart too. I found an old variety called Mutsu and took them down south to my Mother for Christmas one year. She loved them. After I had my gallbladder out the doctor told me you can eat anything now and then he stopped and said except raw apples. He said it was the pectin in the apple that would cause a problem. I could eat them baked just not raw. That is one treat I really miss as I usually ate one every day. I have heard the word meller used from childhood to now. I always enjoy your videos! I picked the last of my green bell peppers, yellow tommy toes and cucumbers and removed the plants. I have one little red tommy toe that is still producing but today may be the last. I planted some lettuce and spinach and they are coming along fine.
Kat Swanson
October 1, 2021 at 12:38 pmNo use of meller as in beating in coalfields of VA. . Mom used to cut the meller spots, the browning spots. off of her peaches as she was canning them. She put the perfect fruit in the jars as the best was required if it was gonna keep. We kids just got the meller spots to eat. Later ,when I got to eat the whole perfect ripe peach, I thought to myself…why, I believe I like the meller spots better!
Tipper
October 1, 2021 at 1:05 pmKat-I love that story 🙂
EJ
October 1, 2021 at 12:29 pm“ I like my apples on the sweet side with a real crunch”
There’s an Apple at Walmart developed by the university of Minnesota .
Called the Sweet Tango it fits your requirements sweet and really crunchy..
Tipper
October 1, 2021 at 1:06 pmEJ-thank you I’ll check them out 🙂
PinnacleCreek
October 1, 2021 at 10:46 amWe had apple orchards all over, as did most family who had any land. I was foundered at one time, but again can eat an apple and enjoy. I think this came from going out in the meadows and orchards and eating lunch from the top of anapple tree. I am certin there were many types we will never see in a store that I enjoyed. My paternal grandfather’s farm had a yellow sweet early apple right outside the fence. I remember how delicious they were, and do not think I have seen one of those in many moons. I liked the meller/mellow ones. We speak of people mellowing, and often talk with my sister about how much our Dad mellowed out over the years. Strict when we were small, but never a word that was not carefully chosen as we grew up. Good word I seldom hear outside my own family.
Shirl
October 1, 2021 at 9:20 amBoth of my parents would have chosen a good meller apple over just about any other food. Stories are told about mom climbing apple trees when she was young and hauling feedsacks full of her favorite fruit to a secret hiding place. She tried to transplant some hard-shell papaw trees from her old homeplace because she said they mellered up real good and were so much better than the soft-shelled ones.
Mom’s threat of mellowing my head got my attention as much as Dad’s threat of a good keen switch.
Mary Beth
October 1, 2021 at 12:20 pmLOL love these stories 😀
Margie G
October 1, 2021 at 9:16 amI use mellow quite often. It’s a good word that takes in lots of uses. I like to get mellow in the early evening as I drink my evening coffee and relish in the day that’s closing in fast. … about 3:30 to 5:30 my mellow time takes place daily. The light is starting to change and the pace seems to slow. The world is closed out and it’s about having coffee time alone.
Ed Ammons
October 1, 2021 at 9:02 amI’m like you, I’ve never heard of meller in reference to a beating. I’m like Pap and Granny in that I like a soft sweet apple. Meller to a point that tomorrow will be too late.
Larry Paul Eddings
October 1, 2021 at 8:17 amI’ve known of meller apples all my life. Like you, I prefer a hard, sweet apple. My favorite is the Arkansas Black.
Ron Stephens
October 1, 2021 at 8:11 amGosh, been a long time since I heard “meller” but it is so familiar. I am like you though, I want my apples crispy. Sharon reminds me that a closely related word is “mealy” for apples that get a kinda grainy, dry texture after they pass their peak. I think different apples do differently, some meller and some turn mealy.
My most favorite apple is a Stayman Winesap. It is a crisp, tart apple which I like better than sweet. They are not good keepers and go meller within about a week and a half. As long as I have them I usually eat at least one a day. They are a mid-season apple and I was told yesterday our local farm market should have them in about 10 days.
Richard
October 1, 2021 at 8:03 amWe have a soft drink in Alabama ,” Mellow Yellow” and in rural areas we call it “ Meller Yeller” with the frequent habit of putting an “ er” on words that end or sound like they end in a or o. Don’t realize it until later . Lol
Rita
October 1, 2021 at 7:47 amLove reading your post email erythromycin morning
Tipper
October 1, 2021 at 9:08 amRita-thank you!!
AWGRIFF
October 1, 2021 at 7:42 amI always heard meller used for a mellow apple too.
When I was a boy and had done some little wrong Dad would knuckle my head, usually just one hard rap, but I can’t remember what he called it. I’ve carried on the tradition with my grandson in fun and now I know what to call it.
Elizabeth Steen
October 1, 2021 at 7:31 amI forgot about this word!! I am pretty sure I have heard it, but in relation to whacking someone in the head, not apples, lol!
I was so touched when I watched one of your videos a couple of days ago and you said that you w3rre integrating a word into your vocabulary so it wouldn’t die off. I plan to do the same thing, since we are about to move back home to TN! We are currently at MCAS Cherry Point, NC, but before that we were 4 years in San Diego, and over 5 years in the Hudson Valley of NY – what culture shocks those were!! Anyhoo, I am so appreciative that you share your sweet family and the old ways with us!!
Tipper
October 1, 2021 at 9:09 amElizabeth-thank you! I’m so glad you enjoy what we do 🙂
Sanford McKinney
October 1, 2021 at 7:07 amTipper,
I have heard the word meller used to describe someone’s demeaner as in; “he sure has mellered out in his older days”.
AWGRIFF
October 1, 2021 at 10:16 amSanford, I just didn’t remember at the time I commented but I have heard that and even used it.
Miss Cindy
October 1, 2021 at 6:00 amI like apples too, Tip, also like them crisp not meller. Sweet or tart is okay as long as they are crisp.