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Brogdale News: OUR HERITAGE OF FRUIT ‘Science has its traditions as well as its frontiers’. This is no less true for crop science than for any other branch of science. Traditionally, crops have been selected and manipulated over centuries, and indeed millennia, giving rise to distinctive forms or varieties suited to particular needs of climates and cultures. Fruits offer a particularly compelling subject in this respect and from ancient times have had connotations of fertility, sexuality and romance - as exemplified in the Abrahamic religions where Eve is said to have been tempted by a fruit, with disastrous consequences. Fruit has therefore had an influential role in religions which form the basis of some pre-eminent cultures. The subsequent development and use of fruits over time have often reflected the course of these cultures and their history. The centres of origin of temperate fruits are in the main well documented, ranging from China in the East to Europe in the West. It seems likely that cultivated apples arose from a species found in Central Asia, while cultivated plums and pears indigenous to Europe have arisen as hybrids from native species and species from near Asia. The origin of sweet cultivated cherries, however, is likely to have been the Caucasus region.
With the development over time of a network of trade routes across Asia, apples and other fruits reached the Middle East and Europe where they became part of the established culture, eventually reaching Britain with the Roman legions. Although the Romans undoubtedly made selections of particular varieties of fruits which they had propagated, these were relatively few and were no doubt from across their empire. They included the apple variety Decio and probably the Wise Apple, both of which feature in the National Collections at Brogdale, thus providing an opportunity for demonstrating the beginnings of apple cultivation in Britain. Other fruit introduced by the Romans were peaches, apricots, vines, quinces and medlars – all of which were grown by the Romano-British as well as the Romans. Small collections of these fruits are also present at Brogdale. Although few records exist of fruit cultivation in the ensuing Dark Ages, it is known that viticulture came into prominence after the departure of the Romans. This was because wine was no longer imported but was still required for Christian ceremonial. However, it seems likely that fruit cultivation in general went into decline following the incursions of the Anglo-Saxons and their eventual settlement in England. Although it is improbable that any dedicated cultivation of fruit persisted for the duration of the Dark Ages, it is believed that largely unselected forms survived and were exploited through the orcharding traditions of the Christian church in the West and of Islam further East. The Norman culture introduced into England after 1066 inevitably included fruit and the monasteries (notably of the Benedictines) were the main focus of innovation of all kinds of fruits – but especially apples. The Normans with them the variety Haute Bonte and they bred the English Pearmain and Costards here in England. The Normans were also responsible for the introduction of cider varieties which resulted in cider eventually becoming the most widespread drink in the country at that time. These Norman varieties are represented in the Collections at Brogdale. The next influence on fruit growing in England came from the wife of Edwards I, Eleanor of Castile, who brought with her the legacy of Islamic horticultural expertise, unaffected by the Dark Ages, in Moorish Spain. The apple variety Blandurel is one of her notable introductions.
As well as apples, peaches began to be introduced again from the Norman period onwards and, in one version of his death, King John is said to have met his end by eating a surfeit of peaches, with ale, in 1216. Peaches were also sufficiently important in his time to have been mentioned by Chaucer. It is probable that peaches were among those fruit which were re-introduced and popularised by Woolf and Tradescant, gardeners to Henry VIII and Charles I respectively. However, they subsequently suffered from a somewhat negative reputation and were described, along with apricots, by Samuel Hartlib (an adviser to Oliver Cromwell) as ‘Fine pleasant fruit but very dangerous and had killed Frenchmen’. Peaches are represented in the Collections by 14 varieties maintained under glass. Since their introduction into Britain by the Romans, quinces and medlars have played a somewhat humble role in our diet. Quinces are not a table fruit but, like medlars, have been used in fruit cheeses, jellies and preserves. In addition, they have been used in cooking to enhance the flavour of more commonly used fruit. Medlars, when ripened and soft, were used in mediaeval times as table fruit when in season. Although now largely unfamiliar, varieties of quinces and medlars are included in the Collections as representative of traditional fruits which, at one time, played a more important part in our culinary history. Pears, plums and cherries emerged and spread somewhat later than apples in Europe. The earlier varieties of pears, being somewhat gritty and not very succulent, were used principally for cooking and it was not until the 14th and 15th centuries that the more familiar sweet and succulent varieties came into existence. One of the earlier so-called ‘iron pears’ is the Black Worcester which features on the coat of arms of the City of Worcester and is recorded as having been served at the wedding breakfast of Edward I. The comprehensive pear collections at Brogdale comprise many examples of iron pears as well as later types of a more melting quality. The fruits known collectively as plums include not only the European hybrid varieties (Victoria, Belle de Louvain etc) but also greengages and damsons which have separate identities. Although cherries are probably indigenous to Britain, the sweeter cultivated types were introduced and spread in historical times. From the earliest period, fresh fruit had been associated with romance, sexuality and fertility and in Europe these became associated with apples, which were the most widely known fruit. This association led to the assumption that the unspecified fruit which tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden was an apple. The perceived aphrodisiac properties of fresh fruit persisted until the 17th century and the final, fruit, course at Victorian banquets represented a relic of this earlier time. Fresh fruit generally, but apples in particular, were regarded with some suspicion until mediaeval times, due to the sharpness of the largely unselected produce and their tendency to cause the ‘grievous flux’. Even the more selected types such as Costard apples, purveyed by ‘Costermongers’, were used mainly for cooking. However, renewed interest in fruit growing under Henry VIII resulted in his gardener, Richard Harris, establishing a fruit garden of imported stock near Teynham, Kent. It is from this that we can date the beginnings of the ‘Garden of England’ in Kent and the proliferation of varieties suited to the English climate. The apple which fell from Newton’s apple tree and which gave rise to his notion of gravitation is believed to have been the variety Flower of Kent, which would have arisen from these original lines. This variety is now grown as a tribute to the great man at many physical laboratories around the world and can be sourced from Brogdale. Later, the growing of top fruit varieties became widespread throughout England and was associated largely with country houses and the gentry who took a particular interest in their cultivation. Exhibitions of fruit, particularly of apples, became very popular in Victorian times when connoisseurs and others would wax lyrical about their flavours and fragrance. But fresh fruit had ceased to be a preserve of the rich and, with increased industrialisation and improved transport, large orchards became established as production units in their own right, rather than as adjuncts to farming. Nurserymen no longer raised varieties of interest to only a minority. In this way, the needs of a growing population were satisfied. Subsequently, the history of fruit-growing in Britain has been one of competition and survival. The ascendancy of the supermarkets and their domination of the marketing chain in the second half of the 20th century have led to an enormous reduction in the numbers of fruit grown in Britain with a major sector of the market now comprised of exotics. The temperate fruits still grown in England are now restricted to those varieties with commercial attributes such as appearance, shelf-life and suitability for storage and transportation. This has led to a narrowing of the genetic base of available produce and, without the dedicated conservation of older varieties with their unique properties, there would be a risk of their becoming extinct. The National Fruit Collections at the Brogdale Horticultural Trust therefore represent a valuable part of our heritage. They reflect our culture and history and, as such, are important for educational purposes as well as for conservation in its own right and for exploitation by scientists and enthusiasts. |
