Core values: the Austrian scheme bringing forgotten apple varieties back to life

Only about 10 of the 2,000 types of apples growing in Austria can be found in supermarkets among the polished, pristine fruit usually on display – a sad ratio according to fans of historic varieties being primed for a comeback.

One of the country’s biggest retail chains has embarked on a pilot rollout of unusual and long-forgotten apples enjoyed in previous centuries, riding an international trend of reviving heirloom fruit and vegetables.

The Spar group is working with produce distributor Frutura to return two rare varieties to shops: Ilzer Rosenapfel (Ilzer Rose apple), dating from about 1840 from the southern state of Styria, and Falchs Gulderling, identified in the 1870s in South Tirol.

“Farming never stands still,” said Frutura co-managing director Katrin Hohensinner-Häupl, calling it a dance between knowledge passed down through generations and innovation.

Rediscovering antique apples using modern cultivation methods are “bringing their history and flavour back to life,” she said.

Beyond opening up lost worlds of flavour, colour and consistency for today’s foodies, the efforts to bring back native fruit varieties are rooted in increased consciousness around biodiversity and the preservation of ancient crops.

Experts fromenvironmentalist NGO, Arche Noah (Noah’s Ark), were enlisted to identify kinds of heritage apples that best lend themselves to modern large-scale cultivation methods.

“Many consumers today are once again taking a greater interest in where food comes from, the varieties involved and how it tastes,” said Markus Kaser, Spar Austria’s deputy chair.

The pilot scheme will test whether the long-lost varieties “can thrive in commercial fruit growing under today’s conditions”. “If we succeed, we would like to offer these special varieties throughout the region,” Kaser said.

The team will be putting the new-old apples to the test in terms of taste, growth performance, susceptibility to disease and shelf life.

An experimental orchard in Styria now has 2,150 trees growing. The first fruits were picked this week for sampling and will head to a trial supermarket in Vienna as well as regional daycare centres and schools next month.

Hohensinner-Häupl said her first impressions were positive, with the ripe Gulderling particularly oversized and deep red, and the Ilzer Rosenapfel more diminutive and paler in complexion. As far as taste, “they recall apples from childhood,” she said.

The Austrian project has taken a page from smaller-scale artisanal orchards and farm stands across Europe and the US experimenting with unique apple varieties.

The German-speaking world boasts a richness of apple names harkening back to bygone eras: Steirische Schafnase (Styrian sheep nose), Crown Prince Rudolf, Kaiser Wilhelm and the juicy, robust Napoleonsapfel, rediscovered in 2018.

The oldest still available may be the Goldparmäne (King of the Pippins), stemming from early 16th-century Normandy.

“The names show just how much work and love the growers put into their fruit trees,” Daniela Dirr, an expert at the historic orchards of Schleißheim Palace in the German state of Bavaria, told regional newspaper Merkur.

Connoisseurs also rave about a broader spectrum of flavours from varieties nearly wiped out by war, industrialised agriculture and a marketplace favouring the sugary over the distinctive. Notes of raspberry, clove, nut and lemon are back.

Pomologists, experts in the field of the rosy orbs, say old apple varieties such as the Berner Rosenapfel also contain significantly more polyphenols in their skin, acting as antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents, which have been bred out of modern varieties.

Researchers at Charité, Berlin’s university hospital, found that a high concentration of polyphenols in heirloom varieties can allow many people with a lifelong allergy to enjoy the fruit.

The study also showed that people with allergies who regularly consume the varieties they can tolerate experience fewer hay fever symptoms. In adults, hay fever is often associated with an apple allergy.

The south-western German city of Reutlingen has a public “Pomologie” park, stemming from a gardening school founded in 1860 and home to 50 types of apple trees.

A boutique in the Schöneberg district of Berlin, Apfelgalerie, curates a selection from 200 varieties grown at a dedicated orchard near the Polish border. Staff offer taste tests of apples with intriguing names such as Apollo and Count Etzo, and sell sampler gift boxes.

In the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, gardener Jochen Bock has been cultivating his own private Eden for more than three decades.

It now boasts a single tree growing more than 100 apple varieties thanks to a sophisticated homespun grafting technique.

“I had a problem: we didn’t have enough space left in the garden, and I was determined to collect lots of apples, particularly historic ones,” Bock told local media this month. “So I started with regional varieties, and one thing led to another.”