C, as in Calville and Vitamin C!

When it comes to vitamin C, what would you say if you were asked to bet on whether it’s an apple or a grapefruit that has the highest vitamin C content?

Like many people and much to your surprise, you’ll bet on the wrong horse. Certain old varieties of apple are richer in vitamin C than grapefruit are and contain almost as much as oranges. The Calville Blanche is one of these exceptional apples.

Why do we hardly ever see it in orchards anymore?

This apple is not as pretty as a plump red apple. It has hollows and bumps and is not as hardy as other varieties. However, researchers have used it to increase the vitamin C content of new apple varieties.

This summarizes the main message delivered by agronomist Bertrand Forest (1919-1998) on CHGB radio in 1947. He concluded as follows:

We recommend that the owners of a Calville Blanche apple tree look after it carefully until fruit breeders develop a new variety of apple with, in addition to its regular qualities, a nutritional value equal to, if not greater than, that of an orange.