Spar Austria, one of the country's largest retail chains, has launched a pilot scheme with produce distributor Frutura to return two rare, long-forgotten apple varieties to supermarket shelves. The initiative is part of a broader international trend of reviving heirloom fruit and vegetables.
The two varieties being reintroduced are 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.
Bringing history and flavour back
Frutura co-managing director Katrin Hohensinner-Häupl said: "Farming never stands still," describing it as a dance between knowledge passed down through generations and innovation. She added that rediscovering antique apples using modern cultivation methods is "bringing their history and flavour back to life."
Beyond offering new tastes for today's foodies, the efforts are rooted in increased consciousness around biodiversity and the preservation of ancient crops. Experts from environmentalist NGO Arche Noah (Noah's Ark) were enlisted to identify heritage apples that best lend themselves to modern large-scale cultivation.
Markus Kaser, Spar Austria's deputy chair, said: "Many consumers today are once again taking a greater interest in where food comes from, the varieties involved and how it tastes."
Trial orchard and supermarket test
The pilot scheme will test whether the long-lost varieties "can thrive in commercial fruit growing under today's conditions." Kaser said: "If we succeed, we would like to offer these special varieties throughout the region." The team will test the apples for 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. As for taste, "they recall apples from childhood," she said.
Heritage varieties across Europe
The Austrian project takes inspiration 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 from bygone eras, including Steirische Schafnase (Styrian sheep nose), Crown Prince Rudolf, Kaiser Wilhelm, and Napoleonsapfel, rediscovered in 2018. The oldest still available may be the Goldparmäne (King of the Pippins), stemming from early 16th-century Normandy.
Daniela Dirr, an expert at the historic orchards of Schleißheim Palace in Bavaria, told regional newspaper Merkur: "The names show just how much work and love the growers put into their fruit trees."
Pomologists say old apple varieties such as the Berner Rosenapfel 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.
Examples of heritage apple cultivation abound in Germany: Reutlingen has a public "Pomologie" park with 50 types of apple trees, and Berlin's Apfelgalerie boutique curates a selection from 200 varieties grown near the Polish border. In Schleswig-Holstein, gardener Jochen Bock has cultivated a single tree growing more than 100 apple varieties using a homemade 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."
