THE Book of Genesis describes it merely as 'the fruit of the tree of knowledge', but, when it came to identifying it, the apple was the natural choice for allegorical depictions of humanity's fall from grace. Ancient traditions abounded with tales of apples, notably golden ones, offering temptation and disaster. Scholarly pedants later suggested alternatives― grape, fig, olive, pomegranate, banana, orange, even mushroom and wheat. However, if the apple really was the culprit in the Garden of Eden, botanical evidence points not to a crisp and succulent orchard fruit, but to its wild ancestor, the crab apple. Its flesh would have been, to quote American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau, 'sour enough to make ajay scream'. Hardly worth incurring the wrath of the Almighty and precipitating the Fall of Man, one might think, yet the blame remains with the apple, the genus name of which is Malus, Latin for evil.
The crab has been around for a long time, the earliest fossils dating from the Eocene period some 45 million years ago. The wild one native to northern Europe is thought to have come from the area now known as Kazakhstan. It was familiar in Anglo-Saxon Britain, for the family name Crabtree, said to trace back to 7th-century Yorkshire, derives from the Old English crabbe-treow and described someone living near a tree or trees.
The truly wild crab, Malus sylvestris or forest apple, accounts for some 40% of crab population across Europe, the rest consisting of feral hybrids, both natural and contrived, with a wide variation in their degrees of wildness. The original strain is most likely to survive on the edges of old woodland and in longestablished hedgerows, but its orchard progeny proliferates across the globe, with some 7,500 known cultivars. Can any other fruiting genus have contributed more generously to human agronomic endeavour? Perhaps the crab deserved a key role in Eden after all.
Denne historien er fra April 17, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra April 17, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery