So, this is where it all began—the North American apple industry, that is. Apples have been grown in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley since the French explorer Samuel de Champlain first settled at what is now Annapolis Royal in 1605. This was the first permanent European settlement in North America north of Florida. The British later took the province, and the French settlers (known as Acadians) were forcibly expelled. Nova Scotia was later resettled by British, Dutch, German, and American immigrants. The largest single influx of settlers (35,000) was from New England at the end of the American Revolution—people loyal to […]