Apple, the jack-of-all-trades: a stroke of luck for Holderhof

Right after the harvest, the crisp apples taste especially good. No wonder, they are still the most popular local fruit among the Swiss. However, they are increasingly preferring exotic fruits. This is a pity, because eastern Switzerland is considered the centre of apple growing. On the one hand, the high-trunk trees provide the idyllic landscape, and on the other hand, the dessert apples for a large part of the Swiss market grow in the yield-oriented low-trunk orchards. The apple is known to be a jack-of-all-trades that can be used in many different ways in the kitchen: It starts with the traditional apple pie, goes on to dried apple rings or grandmother’s applesauce and ends with freshly squeezed apple juice. Holderhof is at the forefront of the latter two, and has been doing so on a large scale since last year. In this way, the beverage and food company supports and promotes the regional production of food. Holderhof is convinced that the potential of the Swiss apple is far from exhausted.

Apple puree in smoothies

The production of juice without the energy-intensive diversions via concentrate is admittedly the main discipline at the fruit processing centre in Sulgen. Collected according to production directions from “Suisse Garantie” to “IP Suisse” to “Bio Suisse” or “Demeter”, the apples are on the one hand bottled as pure juice. On the other hand, the various spritzer beverages come in a fruit juice to water ratio of 60 to 40 percent and usually carbonated. In addition, apple juice can be used almost indefinitely for taste refinement in lemonades. In addition to the “classic” apple juice products, Swiss apples can also be used in other areas. Processed into puree, for example, in the trendy smoothies that often contain many exotic fruits. “This allows us to reduce the proportion of imported raw materials with our regional apples,” explains Holderhof founder Christof Schenk. On the one hand, this makes ecological sense, on the other hand, it strengthens the Swiss production location. And that is precisely the basic idea of the Holderhof. Christof is already thinking about the future and other products: Why not produce frozen apple pieces for the baking industry, for example?

Holderhof uses apples that have been damaged by hail and storms

The harvest in the current apple year is already lower than usual in Switzerland. What makes it all the worse is that hailstorms and storms have swept through apple orchards in some regions of Switzerland. Such apples can no longer be used as dessert apples for fresh consumption. But they can be processed: this autumn, Holderhof in Sulgen has already processed many tonnes of apples affected by hailstorms and storms into puree or juice. In doing so, the company made a considerable contribution to reducing food waste. And anyway: at the end of the processing by the modern equipment lines, hardly anything of the apple remains. And even this leftover is used either as animal feed or for energy production in the biogas plant.

Applesauce production at the fruit processing centre in Sulgen.