Fruit trees are integral to Germanic culture and lore. In times when most farms and rural homesteads depend on the land for nourishment, fruit trees and bushes bless the harvest with abundant apples, cherries, plums and berries.
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Fruit in German Tradition
An orchard or even a few fruit trees is a solid investment in care for many years' worth of produce. Proper pruning at the end of the year encourages healthy growth. On average the trees take 4 - 5 years to start producing fruit.
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Before electricity, fruit preserves, dried fruits and berries keep the family healthy over the long cold winter. Fruit is especially celebrated in the dark sinister days before winter solstice, when evil spirits and the Undead roam the land.
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The fruit trees of Germania produce apples, elderberry, cherries, plums and pears. The national fruit of Germany, apples make the classic pastry Apfel Strudel (apple strudel) Plum dumplings are part of the traditional German dinner menu.
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Cherries are more abundant in the south. Summer cherries give sweet refreshment on a hot August day. They produce the famous cherry liqueur (Kirschwasser) for mouth-watering Black Forest Cake. German bakers are masters of decadent desserts.
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Berry-bearing bushes on the family farm include red currant, black currant, gooseberry and raspberry. Fruit is used in baking, cooking, making wine, cider or mead, natural health and folk medicine.
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Due to ancient drainage techniques, the Altes Land around Hamburg and the River Elbe yields the most fruit trees. 90% are apple with the other 10% being cherry, plum, pear trees and berry bushes.
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Folklore of Fruit Trees
Agrarian lifestyles, fruit and crop cultivation develop in the Neolithic Age from c. 9000 BCE. Folklore of fruit trees includes harvest traditions, tree magic and nature spirits. People of early Germania know the mystic and practical aspects of fruit trees.
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Trees are often inhabited by tree spirits. Germanic tree spirits can be ethereal like the dryads of Greek myth, or seem to be regular people. Others manifest as hybrids of human and tree. Temperament varies from friendly to indifferent to hostile.
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Besides a resident spirit the tree can host a vast ecosystem of birds, insects, amphibians such as toads and salamanders, lichen, mushrooms, microcosms and Faerie folk. Sometimes moss people move in and establish a habitat.
They're harmless to the tree and rarely seen, but could drop crabapples on your head. Moss people especially have a tendency toward impish mischief or crotchety annoyance. They love the tree because it's their home, and help the spirit tend and nurture it.
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Edible morel mushrooms grow in fruit orchards. Fairy ring mushrooms have a symbiotic relationship with tree roots. They form fairy rings, fairy circles, elf rings or witch rings around one or more trees. As the mushrooms age and die they they infuse the earth with nutrients.
Some fairy ring mushrooms are edible. Others are poisonous to people and pets. Beware of unknown fungi, toxic false morels, death caps and destroying angels.
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In folklore, tree spirits and mystic residents care deeply for their trees. Particular magic of a spirit nourishes the tree, attracts birds to eat pests, encourages growth of helpful flora and fungi, and facilitates flow of nutrients. A person leaning on the trunk can feel the energy.
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The spirit bonds with the fruit tree. If the tree is burned or cut down the spirit has to find another tree or transcend to an alternate state. Wood made into jewelry, ornaments, bowls contains spirit energy. In cuisine, fruit wood smoke adds succulence to food.
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Yule Fertility Animals
The magic of the fruit trees comes together with the health and well-being of the tree. In German myth there are several harvest spirits who come to fertilize the fruit trees at Yule or Winter Solstice, or Christmas Day.
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The spirits who fertilize fruit trees take the shape of domestic animals. They include the Harvest Bull or Ox, the Harvest Cow, the Buck and Nanny Goats and the Kornesel or Grain Donkey. Only herbivores fertilize the trees. Their deposits are rich in tree-friendly nutrients.
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Nothing's thrown away on the farm. Farmers save all the manure they can over summer to enrich their fields. The natural compounds in the excrement of plant-eating animals returns to Earth and nourishes new plants, ensuring a healthy crop and branches loaded with fruit.
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As Winter Solstice signals return of the sun, trees feel a difference in days and prepare for spring. Fertilization around the Solstice gives them vigor. As the Earth awakens, buried seeds crack open and tiny roots seek food. Herbivore poop is ambrosia to them.
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