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The Last Fruit Trees

Lyne Bellemare

The man on the phone seems embarrassed. "No ma'am,” he says. “I'm sorry, we cut the two “Fameuse” variety apple trees we had left last year. We started running out of space, you see, and we had to expand our regular varieties. The demand was not very high for these apples, and the trees were old. Sorry!”

I hung up, stunned. I had just lost one of my last chances to taste the Fameuse, and to get a graft of the apple variety that once grew all over Montreal. As is the case with this apple, a number of vegetable varieties from our garden have gone extinct in the last century, and will never again be part of our daily lives.

Fruit culture in Quebec

The tradition of growing fruit in Quebec dates back to a long time ago. The first fruit trees – peach, plum, cherry and apple trees – arrived on the continent when they were brought by boat for the clergy and bourgeoisie of the time, since most of the population could not afford to import European fruit trees. Native fruit was available in the province, but was considered "wild", while the fruits of the old country were perceived as being "more civilized".

The first settlers, most of whom did not have much property or wealth, consumed the wild fruits that were abundant near forests and that were eaten by native communities, such as blackberries, viburnum trefoil, and saskatoon berries. Writings from the time tell us about the abundance of these fruits in Montreal, which could satisfy any fruit lover.

The accessibility of these small local fruits countered the constraints of growing fruit in a northern climate. Seasonal harvests allowed people to add diversity to their regular menus, while also providing significant vitamin and caloric contents. Bringing over varieties from Europe and adapting them to Quebec’s climate was a challenge, but one that religious communities were ready to meet.

The role of religious communities

The first orchards in Montreal emerged within missionary communities. In their efforts to evangelize and settle the "savages", they taught them their methods of agriculture and fruit growing. In addition to providing substantial revenues from the sale of surplus harvest, fruit picking ensured the autonomy of the community while also serving God's purposes: to teach a way of life that was settled in one location through the year. These communities also had a pool of free and abundant labour when it came to harvest time, since everyone had a hand in the picking and selling.

One important area of ​​Montreal was that of the Sulpicians, called the Domain of the Mountain (now part of Westmount at the foot of Mont-Royal). The fields here included fruit trees, vines and a vegetable garden, surrounded by a wooden palisade. The abundance of fruit here was equalled only by the rigor, order and discipline of the religious community working in the garden.

The Convent of St. Joseph Hospital is still home to an orchard on Pine Avenue. This is one of the last remainders of an area that originally covered nearly 150 acres. Until 1932, the nuns at the convent did not need to buy milk, cream, or eggs, and were self-sufficient in fruits and vegetables.

The fruit of our heritage

A number of varieties of fruit have thus had their moment of glory in Montreal. Bon Chrétien pear, which has virtually disappeared today, could be found here in the seventeenth century. Flemish Beauty was popularized at the same time, but experienced greater popularity and can be still found today in nurseries. The Damascus plum found its way into popular culture as well. But what has become of the famous apple that one of the first settlers, Louis Hébert, planted in 1617, which became so popular that it was exported, by the barrelful, to England?

Fruit trees are mostly self-sterile, and must be fertilized by another variety. The resulting seed grows into a tree whose fruit characteristics come from both parents, sometimes giving mixed results. In addition, unlike annual vegetables, it takes a number of years before that tree produces fruit and growers can taste the results of their experimentation. Our lives are too short for this! It is for this reason that grafting is so popular. Grafting allows the parent tree to be cloned, keeping its characteristics, and producing fruit in a shorter time, since the grafted branch is mature enough to produce fruit in 4-5 years.

The varieties that arrived by boat from Europe were multiplied, either by grafting or mixing, to give rise to those that were adapted to the harsh climate of Quebec. The Montreal pear, St Lawrence apple and Savignac pear are all examples, and many were named after regions or people in Quebec.

The situation today

Modern-day fruit varieties have been developed to meet certain criteria, and commercial hybrids often claim to be weather or disease resistant, or small enough to fit in urban spaces. But these trees are often developed by agribusinesses, and require constant care, irrigation, and synthetic fertilizers to produce attractive fruit. A modern apple orchard, if uncared for, will lead to diseased trees and apples that are scab-stained. But surely most of us can remember a fruit tree we have seen in the countryside, in the middle of a clearing, left to itself, with a heady aroma and juicy apples that children happily munch.

The rapid urbanization and industrialization of the 1830s made farmland scarce, and the bourgeoisie of the land and moved to their last entrenchments in the West Island and the Island-Bizard. The arrival of railroads meant that small orchards in Quebec could no longer compete with fruit from warmer Ontario.

Though fruit cultivation has not been completely abandoned by the city, many current trees are a result of recent waves of immigration that brought with them the Montreal fig, and peach and cherry trees, which now have part of the local heritage. The only memory of large orchards, however, are the street names that remind us of the existence of a culture of prolific fruit in a time before highways. In fact, today, only 4% of all public trees in the central districts of Montreal are fruit trees.

But maybe, some day, you will find, in your backyard, a fruit variety forgotten by all. And maybe you will decide to save and reproduce it, so it can be enjoyed by our children and our grandchildren.

Lyne Bellemare is Seeds of Diversity Canada's French Program Coordinator.

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