Incredible Organic Orchard Protects 350 Old Apple Varieties

Eckart has created an incredible organic orchard in northern Germany. In this ecological organic orchard, he has amassed 350 disappearing regional apple varieties that he has collected over the past 30 years.

Eckart has spent the last 35 years hunting down 350+ old, forgotten apple cultivars and planted them out on 4 hectares of what used to be a maize field just south of Hamburg, Germany. It's an ecological paradise. At the end of the 19th century, Germany had 4,000 known cultivars of apples. Worldwide, up to 10,000 cultivars have been described, though that number is dwindling fast. Eckart is protecting invaluable genetic diversity and agricultural heritage. He loves the old cultivars for their unique traits that can't be found in supermarket apples. The place is proof that an entirely natural way of growing fruit trees IS possible thanks to the insects, animals and plants that contribute to the health of the ecosystem. By diversifying the orchard, the ecosystem as a whole gets more resilient. And protecting the 350 cultivars he has collected is Eckart's core mission. Now in his early 70s, Eckart is still working every day to realize his vision of preserving regional cultivars in a rich and functioning ecosystem.