Menorca’s ancient apples, an almost forgotten fruit-growing heritage

Bep Al·lès/Ciutadella - Menorca preserves in its agricultural memory a rich heritage of fruit trees that, for centuries, formed part of the landscape of its country estates, dry-stone-walled orchards and traditional farming self-sufficiency. Among these trees, apple trees held a prominent place, as recorded by Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria in Die Insel Menorca, the volume devoted to the island within his monumental work Die Balearen.

The list compiled by the Archduke is now a small ethnobotanical treasure. It contains names that evoke colours, shapes, flavours and origins, as well as the popular way of naming things that were familiar and part of everyday life: pomes brutes or de na Bruta, camoses, capsanes, de carall daurat, de coure agre and de coure dolça, de cul de matxo, d’escorça groga, del Bon Jesús, del ciri, de massanilla, de na Polida, den Kane, de pinyol, de randa dolça, de Santa Caterina, de Santa Caterina blava, de vidre, fogasses, massanes, massanes negres, olivares, reials, reials dolces, reinetes or French apples, and retxades or robertes.

These names are far more than a simple list of varieties. They offer a window onto a diverse agricultural Menorca, where each farm could preserve its own apple tree, adapted to the soil, the wind, drought and the needs of the household. Some apples would have been better suited to eating fresh, while others may have been ideal for storing, cooking, making preserves or accompanying dishes from traditional rural cuisine.

The gradual disappearance of many of these varieties is linked to changes in agriculture, trade and consumption. However, recovering their names is already a first step towards preserving their memory. Menorca’s ancient apples speak of a time when flavour had roots, fruit had its own name and biodiversity was an inseparable part of everyday life.