34 In our country, owning an orchard with standard trees or low-growing fruit plants has not been a profitable investment for many years now. During the economic crisis of the 1930s, the fruitgrowing sector was the only sector to thrive without government funding. In fact up until World War II, the fruit sector in Limburg and the area around the rivers was flourishing. Fruit was an important source of income in Limburg, partly thanks to the associated bee products such as honey biscuits, cider and vinegar and drying in bread ovens. As a result of innovation, changing tastes over the years and the lack of a clear fruit culture, many older Dutch species became extinct. The innovations were designed to simplify harvesting, increase the production ratio per tree and reduce the work that went into tending the trees. People’s tastes turned to large, firm, sharp-tasting fruit, and many types simply disappeared from the range. Fruit (from standard trees) is still a profitable economic investment in countries like Germany and England, partly due to the increasing popularity of bee-related products. For example, there is a flourishing juice and jam culture in these countries. Looking at it from this perspective, there are certainly opportunities for the Dutch fruit industry to close the gap between city-dwellers and the fruit-growing sector, and perhaps to give fruit a more important place in the day-to-day lives of young people and their parents. Increased interest among city-dwellers (both young and old) in growing and harvesting fruit together is a good starting point for introducing ‘social tasty fruit’, and at the same time breathing new life into traditional trades like bee-keeping, fruit tree farming (standard rather than low-growing trees) and fruit production. This may even help to safeguard these traditional vocations into the future. The initial feasibility study for the ‘Fruit and Play’ and ‘Community Orchard’ concepts involved 16 interviews with representatives from the network. The findings from these interviews provided us with insight into the social breakthrough that would enable the concepts to be realized and how to go about it. The key innovation question was: How can we make maximum use of public space to grow significant amounts of fruit? Various angles were taken into account, including the economic, communal, ecological, social, health, property, public space, fruit and bee perspectives. The central theme in the findings from these interviews was the abundance of values that can often be implicitly tied up with the concepts. The challenge: how can we sharpen our focus on both the human and economic, as well as the social value of the two fruit concepts? Fruit allows us to take a multi-facetted look at social issues. The term holistic fruit was even mentioned. The people being interviewed often stressed the fact that fruit is close to people’s day-to-day lives; it is attractive and concrete. Everyone has some kind of attachment to fruit. It stands for fun & enjoyment, harmony (young & old), gathering fruit and making a delicious apple pie. Fruit can be an important factor in uniting people in deprived areas (much like sport), as well as in the areas where the city borders on countryside or landscape. As fruit has the potential to generate a broad and cohesive package at the local level, it will be possible to Pagina 41

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