Free and libre

One of the great things this summer and early autumn has been to taste new apple varieties. Not in any kind of shop or orchard, but along the old roads and railways in the neighbourhood. There are apple trees every kilometer or so, full of summer-ripe fruit.

Across the road from our house, there is an old railway track that is now converted into a bike path, and I have sampled apples from at least five different trees and all are different. I suspect they are seedling trees from the railway days, since they grow on the edges of the old railway bank, where nobody would plant a tree.

There are also quite a lot of abandoned lots, where people have lived in the past, but where only the apple trees tell the stories of times long gone. Sometimes we can see rests of a foundation or a ruin of a chimney, sometimes it is just the leftover trees and bushes that indicate the history of the place.

Here is a delicious apple tree near Vallåsen:

On Monday, I made a detour on my bike, and saw a couple of beautiful trees on the edge of the village Genevad. I was on my way home from the recycling plant where I do a job these months and as usual I felt the urge to stop and sample the fruit.

These apples are amazing. The bite is first mellow, but the flavours explode in the mouth and nose after just a second. I have never tasted an apple that gave me this intense sensation. M was just as enthousiastic about the apples when I came home, calling them "aphrodisiac" apples. I cannot imagine a better judgement than that.

So, when I travelled by today with two new great friends from Lund, I just had to take a detour and share my new-found favourite with them. The tree is still almost full of apples, but a ladder would be needed to collect them all.

I think that I will collect some scion wood of this apple when winter comes, so that we can propagate and share this amazing apple experience. I will also sow some seeds and that will maybe yield even more surprising experiences. The apples are small and red and plentiful:

Next to this stunner of an apple, another great tree is shedding her apples on the ground. The bite is juicier, but the flavour is less spectacular compared to the neighbour. And it is a pity that I just found it this week. Next year, I have to come a couple of weeks earlier. Today, we also sampled these apples:

But apples are not the only bounty that is offered for free to pedestrians and bikers. There are also quite a few plum trees in the public domain.

And... plenty of cherry trees, but that was earlier this summer. I collected quite some seeds from good cherry trees, so I hope to grow out a small cherry forest.