Micah Rood's Apples
Preserved but no longer current.
Apples with a spot of red in the heart. The story is that Micah Rood was a prosperous farmer at Franklin, Pa. In 1693 a pedlar with jewellery called at his house, and next day was found murdered under an apple-tree in Rood's orchard. The crime was never brought home to the farmer, but next autumn all the apples of the fatal tree bore inside a red blood-spot, called "Micah Rood's Curse," and the farmer died soon afterwards.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Micah Rood's Apples” mean?
Apples with a spot of red in the heart. The story is that Micah Rood was a prosperous farmer at Franklin, Pa. In 1693 a pedlar with jewellery called at his house, and next day was found murdered under an apple-tree in Rood's orchard. The crime was never brought home to the farmer, but next autumn all the apples of the fatal tree bore inside a red blood-spot, called "Micah Rood's Curse," and the farmer died soon afterwards.
Is “Micah Rood's Apples” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.