Orchards: A Heritage of Culture

More information about:

Once, there were several thousand varieties of apples and pears; depending on location, climate, soil, and water requirements, specific varieties were planted and selected for their flavor, ripening time, suitability for use, and storability. To keep trees healthy, up until the 1870s, attention was paid to disease resistance, varietal diversity within orchards, and pruning techniques.

From the 1920s and 1930s onward, however, Europe saw the industrialization of fruit cultivation following the American model: plantation-style orchards with low-growing trees were developed. Without inorganic or chemical-synthetic agents, this type of cultivation, limited to just a few varieties, cannot yield any standardized marketable goods. Current challenges, such as climate change, demand adaptation; ancient fruit varieties offer a broad genetic heritage, and for this reason alone, it is essential to continue cultivating old fruit tree species.

This topic and traditional orchards—which, thanks to their centuries-old trees, host levels of biodiversity rarely found in other European habitats—will be the focus of the conference “Orchards: A Heritage of Culture, Agrobiodiversity, and Biodiversity”, with Mattia Omezzolli, on Thursday, May 15 at 6:00 PM at the South Tyrol Museum of Natural History. The biologist, who also runs a nursery and orchard in Riva del Garda, preserves old varieties of apples, pears, quinces, plums, cherries, and berries. He will explain why he does so, how greater biodiversity can be achieved, and how agrobiodiversity can be maintained.

The conference is part of the lecture series “Keeping Afloat. Agriculture and Society”, which examines the state of agriculture from a historical and ethnological perspective. The series is organized by the Center for Regional History, the South Tyrol Museum of Natural History, the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, “Geschichte und Region/Storia e regione”, and the Association of Ethnologists of South Tyrol. Admission is free.

Suggest an edit/correction

Despite our efforts in verifying data we do not assume any responsibility for the correctness of information and the effective ralisation of events listed in our calendar. In order to verify single events, please contact the organisers.