Getting a taste for tradition

Apples galore, Switzerland has the fruit in abundance Keystone

Apples are the most popular fruit in Switzerland. But as swissinfo discovers, there's a lot more to the humble fruit than your average supermarket Golden Delicious.

Switzerland has more than 600 – largely forgotten – traditional varieties of its own. Moves are underway to rehabilitate them for use in fruit juices and liquors. Some are even resistant to the devastating crop disease fire blight.

David Szalatnay at the Agroscope agricultural research station in Wädenswil on Lake Zurich has been tracking down and cataloguing old fruit varieties. He has found an estimated 2,000 types in Switzerland alone, of which around a third are apples.

The country’s varied climate and the fact that Swiss mercenary soldiers brought back new kinds from France and Britain are all reasons for small Switzerland’s apple abundance, says Szalatnay. Cold-loving Russian sorts were even introduced in the mountains.

“A lot of the old varieties were grown for processing purposes, for fruit juice, liquor or dried fruit,” Szalatnay told swissinfo.

But many of these apple trees have been cut down to make way for farming machinery and for urban expansion.

Tastes have also changed. “People like crispy apples which are quite firm and sweet. In former days people preferred them with more acidity,” said Szalatnay.

This is why you won’t see many traditional varieties in the shops. At present, one in three apples sold in Switzerland is a Golden Delicious. Only two native Swiss apples make the top ten and both come from the 1960s.

In with the old…

But Szalatnay believes traditional fruit could make a comeback for processing purposes, especially as juice factories are reporting apple shortages. However, not all are suitable. To illustrate his point, he opens three bottles of apple juice and pours us a glass of each.

The first one is Heimenhofer, a golden yellow juice with a pleasant taste. “Heimenhofer is quite interesting because it has a good fruit quality; it is both acid and sweet.”

This could be good for cider. “If you don’t have any acidity you have a boring cider, and if it’s too acid it’s not pleasant to drink.”

The next, Wildmuser, from eastern Switzerland, is very sweet, almost like a dessert wine. “That’s not something that would be pleasant to drink on a hot summer’s day,” he admits.

The third apple juice, from the Jonathan variety, can only be described as having an “interesting taste”, with a slightly salty note. “People either love it or hate it,” Szalatnay says.

This just goes to show that the apple taste can range as much as appearance, says Szalatnay, who for his research project has had the enviable task of tasting the almost 500 samples of fruit juice brewed at Agroscope from traditional varieties – as well as around 200 liquors.

Apple CSI

Some traditional apples can be indentified through old books – the Sternapi, named for its five point star shape, is beautifully illustrated in a 400-year-old reference tome in Agroscope’s library. The fruit is actually thought to be much older than that, dating from Roman times.

However, finding the correct name is not always easy, as the same fruit might be called up to 15 different things across the country. DNA testing has helped.

The four-year project, which runs until 2010, is also looking to see if traditional apples can better cope with fire blight. This devastating bacterial infection kills trees, turning their leaves and branches black.

Thousands of trees were cut down in Switzerland in 2007, the worst ever year for fire blight. It is still spreading – only three cantons have so far escaped the disease, according to the latest Federal Agricultural Office figures.

At Agroscope, the research part of the agricultural office, specially grown baby trees are injected with fire blight under indoor quarantine conditions.

Biting back

Resistance – meaning less susceptibility – has been confirmed in several old varieties, including the cider-friendly Heimenhofer and the Schneiderapfel.

But there are no immune sorts. “I think we need to learn how to manage this disease. Other places have lived with fire blight for 40 years. One solution is to have these resistant varieties, another is to learn how to manage plantings when you have fire blight,” said Szalatnay.

Even the tree collections at Wädenswil, in which two trees per variety are grown for conservation and observation purposes, have not totally escaped. Luckily, Agroscope has many planting stations around the country, so there is no risk of a variety being wiped out.

Szalatnay finds his pomological research very rewarding. “You can see that there are not just 15 apple varieties, but there is a huge range and some have very special qualities which have been forgotten or are only found in old books,” he said.

But does the “apple detective” have any in his fruit bowl at home? “I usually don’t because I eat many apples and other fruit at work. But I still like them, just not in my spare time!”

swissinfo, Isobel Leybold-Johnson in Wädenswil

In brief

Contrary to popular belief, an apple tree cannot be grown from a single seed. Normally the tissues from one plant are encouraged to fuse with another.

One plant is selected for its roots (stock) and the other for its fruit (scion). The two are grafted together, i.e. a shoot of the scion is cut off and placed onto a prepared area of the stock. This is a 2,000-year-old method.

The Golden Delicious is more than 100 years old. It was found as a seedling by accident in the United States.

Only two Swiss varieties, Maigold, developed at Wädenswil, and Rubinette, from the 1960s, are among the top ten apples consumed in Switzerland.

Apple research

The Agronomic and Pomological Description of Fruit Genetic Resources (2007-2010) project is aimed at identifying and describing indigenous fruit as well as finding the best way to cultivate, breed and use these varieties. Their propensity to disease (fire blight, scab and mildew) is also checked.

It is carried out at the Agroscope Research Station, part of the Federal Agriculture Office, in Wädenswil, in conjunction with Fructus, the Swiss Association for the Protection of Fruit Heritage.

The aim is to conserve these old varieties, which can also be used as a genetic resource by fruit growers. Some may find their way onto the market.