Sweet or sour?

Hands-on cultural history: the apple trees lining the path illustrate the evolution from the wild apple to the varieties we have today. It all began with the wild ancestor, Malus sylvestris, now also known as the crab apple. Traces of this species are frequently unearthed during archaeological excavations in Central Europe. Stone Age hunters and gatherers made the small, hard and sour fruits edible by drying or heating them. Our modern cultivated varieties arose from the cross-breeding of the native wild apple with the larger and sweeter Asian wild apple, Malus sieversii. This species is thought to have reached Europe from Kazakhstan via the Silk Road. Through selection and grafting techniques, the variety of cultivars has continued to increase. 2,000 years ago, the Romans were already familiar with several dozen varieties; today there are over 30,000. Cultivated apple varieties can only be preserved through grafting. This involves attaching a bud (bud grafting – „okulieren“) or a twig of the desired variety (graft – „pfropfen“) to another tree. If an apple tree is grown solely from seed, the result is usually trees bearing small, sour wild apples. In modern fruit growing, compact growth habits make harvesting easier. The desired apple variety is grafted onto a young sapling with weak-growing roots – this rootstock determines not only the tree’s height but also when it begins to bear fruit and its lifespan.
One of the most successful commercial varieties is the Golden Delicious. It originated by chance from a seedling and produces sweet, firm fruit and high yields, but is susceptible to disease. In organic farming, growers are once again turning increasingly to hardy traditional varieties such as Boskoop or Sternrenette, which thrive without intensive pest control and preserve distinctive flavours and regional diversity.