The ancestors of the Danish national apple are old but still growing - only a few hundred meters away from Den gamle Kro - The old Inn. The national apple is according to a committee of experts the Graasten-apple and two very old appletrees of “the family” are still to be found in the beautiful garden at the Royal Castle of Graasten. They are in direct line inoculates of the father and mother of all Graasten appletrees: the trees, which were brought to Denmark by the noble family of the Ahlefeldts of Graasten for more than three hundred years ago, and by the biological engineering of that time ended up as the specie of the Graasten apple.
The Graasten-apple has this very special combined taste of a delicious sweetness and a subacidity which make it an aromatic apple just to eat and eminent for cooking as well. So of course in the autumn and until Christmas it is to be found in the kitchen of Den gamle Kro. And you will only find it here in these months - we don’t play with the seasons. You can find it in wonderful cakes and bakeries of the good old times. Good meat will be accompanied by the historic apple and in the traditional Danish winter-speciality “Hot Apple with pork” we will use it too. Maybe you should like to taste it in the traditional Graasten Punch - but sorry to say: we can’t describe it. You’ll have to taste it yourself.
The Graasten apple is in fact two of a kind. It means a red and a yellow one. But the yellow is now a days a rare specie to find - even in Northern Schleswig. Red or yellow - the Graasten-appletree is
like an old woman: nice and kind to everyone but exposed to a lot of dangers. So those who have the old trees growing in their gardens know how to take special and intensive care of them. They know not to keep Graasten-appletrees expecting a big harvest but instead having “the old ladies” in the garden just for pleasure and being pleased and grateful seeing them growing in their own aristocratic way. And here we should like to quote the Danish poet of the eighteenth century, Ludwig Holstein, who in his September song, “The brightening fields of fall”, wrote:
“Oh in this time of fall please hand me a Graasten-apple with tastes of the springs in my fathers meadows and a hint of his good soil”.
As you can see - it’s a famous apple. Please handle with care - and respect!