Jean-Pierre Billen reviews Oude Fruitrassen by Hennie Rossel, a fruit book covering Dutch apples, plums and pears.

There are not too many fruit books published nowadays and even less if one lives in a small linguistic group as the Dutch and the Flemish do, but Hennie Rossel's Oude Fruitrassen, 'Old Fruit varieties' will go a long way towards correcting this lack of information. It is in fact a collection of articles on fruit varieties, previously published in the Dutch magazine, Landleven, 'Country Life'. Rossel covers a wide selection of fruits that were and still are popular in standard fruit tree cultivation. Today standard fruit trees are mainly planted in landscaping projects and by amateur fruit growers, to which latter group he belongs. Rossel is a member of the Dutch fruit association 'Noordelijke Pomologische Vereniging' (N.P.V.) which is active in northern Holland. The association has published booklets with pomological descriptions in which all the properties of the tree and fruit are written down in a standard format, but in Oude Fruitrassen all the typical and characteristic qualities of each variety are brought together into an easy reading article.

 Apples play the leading role with descriptions of 44 different varieties. Rossel also gives attention to plums with 14 variety descriptions and includes 18 pears. The varieties have not all originated in Holland, many are internationally well known. There are German and Northern European varieties, such as as Ananas (Pineapple) Reinette, Gravensteiner, Ingrid Marie, Lotharinger Rambour, Schöner aus Nordhausen apples and Anna Späth, Hauszwetche, Opal plums. A few French varieties too are included: the apples, Reinette de Champagne, Transparente de Croncels, Transparente Jaune; plums Mirabelle de Nancy, Monsieur Hâtif, Reine Claude Verte and Duchesse d'Angoulême pear. Popular British varieties mentioned are Beauty of Bath, Bramley's Seedling, Cox's Pomona, Early Victoria, James Grieve, Mank’s Codlin apples and Czar, Early Laxton, Victoria, Rivers Early Prolific plums.

 All the varieties are placed in their historic context. Rossel often includes the first pomological publication in which they appeared and each variety is positioned in the fruit landscape of Holland, that is, when it was popular and its commercial value. The fruit descriptions are clear with an eye for what is typical. Eating and culinary qualities are also detailed. For anyone just beginning to grow fruit Rossel's advice on varieties that deserve a place in the amateur’s garden will be useful. The nicest thing about this book is that one can become familiar with Dutch varieties. Notarisappel, Boscoop and Gronsvelder Klumpke may not ring a bell with everyone, but these were once widely planted apples in Holland with an important market role.

 Sweet apples are typically Dutch I think. I am not aware that anywhere else has as many sweet varieties in proportion to other apples. In Belgium we do not have a single so called sweet apple. In Holland they have Zoete (Sweet) Kroon, Zoete Ermgaard, Dijkmanszoet and Zoete Campagner. These sweet apples are very often used in the kitchen, although Rossel writes that Zoete Ermgaard and Zoete Kroon have also fresh eating qualities. I am not quite convinced, but that is probably because my sense of taste is different.

 I was very much pleased to see a description of the Schellinkhouter apple. It brings back memories of one of the first exhibitions of Europom sometime in the nineties. An older gentleman from northern Holland tried in a very enthusiastic way to convince us to make room in our orchards for at least one Schellinkhouter.

 Further north how much more difficult it is to grow a good, juicy pear. The Dutch have their own varieties with characteristically Dutch names, such as, Oranjepeer, Zwijndrechtse Wijnpeer, Kruidenierspeer, Juttepeer, Noord Hollandse Suikerpeer and Gieser Wildemans. These are pears for summer and the autumn season. Among the Dutch culinary pears there are Zoete Brederode, Ijsbout, Pondspeer, but my favourite in this section is Winterrietpeer. It might not have the quality of a St Rémy pear but it is a beautiful looking and tasty pear when stewed. Every year I put a little box aside of these cinnamon coloured, long pyriform shaped pears. In sunny years they develop an attractive dark red blush. Winterrietpeer stays firm after being stewed, it is a little sourish and colours a beautiful red, which looks very attractive on a plate. This is a healthy, quite productive variety that grows well on quince A rootstock and recommended.

 The fruit descriptions are accompanied by water colours painted by Lineke Rekers. Nearly every fruit in these plates is presented from different angles, often together with a section through the fruit and a drawing of the blossom. These are accurate illustrations that will be useful when doing determination work.

 Oude Fruitrassen is a good book for anyone who wishes to lay out an orchard. It is especially good when you are interested in growing local Dutch varieties, not least because information on these is scarce, but one has to take into account that this book is written in Dutch.

Jean-Pierre Billen

Oude Fruitrassen by Hennie Rossel, illustrated by Lineke Rekers, published 2009 by Landleven (www.landlevenboek.nl; tel 0314 34 98 71); 15.50 euros; pp 167; colour illustrations throughout; paperback.