Harvest time in Mintraching: community orchards invite you to harvest!

Harvest time in Mintraching: community orchards invite you to harvest!

In the municipality of Mintraching, the harvest of ripe fruit is promoted through communal orchards that extend across various locations throughout the municipality. These shared areas not only offer citizens the opportunity to harvest fruit, but also to exploit and use these valuable resources. The exact locations of the orchards are Schulstrasse and Ringstrasse in Mintraching, as well as areas in Gengkofen and Mangolding near the playground. There are also orchards at the playground in Scheuer and Sengkofen. There is also a meadow on Grünbuckl south of Moosham and another on the GVS towards Geisling near Klein Gilla. For those interested, further information can be found on the Mintraching municipality website.

The tradition of fruit growing has a long history in Europe, dating back to ancient times. High-quality fruit cultivars were brought to Europe by the Romans, who supplemented their knowledge of fruit cultivation from the Orient and Greece. Egyptian temple inscriptions already provide evidence of the cultivation of apple trees in gardens. In the Middle Ages, ecclesiastical orders and secular rulers cultivated knowledge of fruit species, while Charlemagne issued a royal decree on the care of orchards as early as the 8th century. These historical insights illustrate how deeply rooted fruit growing is in European cultural history. Today, increased nutritional awareness is a driving force that supports initiatives to preserve and use traditional fruit stocks, as can be observed in Bavaria, for example.

The development of fruit growing

With industrialization in the 19th century, fruit growing increased significantly in Germany and other European countries. Orchards emerged along roads and in commons, while mixed orchards and fruit vineyards predominated in regions with small businesses. A census in 1900 showed that there were more than 168 million productive fruit trees in the German Empire. But the post-war period was followed by a period in which orchard growing became economically more difficult until many stands had to give way to new development areas and traffic routes. The cultivation of table fruit eventually shifted to low-stem systems, which placed increasing pressure on traditional orchards.

Nevertheless, from around 1970 there were numerous initiatives to preserve and use orchards. These efforts are not least due to the growing interest in healthy diets and regional products, which has become increasingly important over the last 15 years. In many communities, including Mintraching, the creation and preservation of orchards not only preserves a source of food, but also a piece of cultural landscape that is important for future generations.