Aeppelkeschd

Talking to Joe last night reminded me on the fruit trees in my home area - he was telling me about small apple trees that friends of his are planning to put into their backyard. The trees are basically hybrids, i.e. set on top of a different tree that does not get very large. This way, one can have a full-fledged apple orchard in a relatively confined space. Yield is similar to full-size trees, but with the hybridization come also fortitudes of the tree partner into play - the new tree might be small, but also more hardy in different climates, more robust against different diseases etc.
Germany has a very long tradition of hybridization of trees. Saarland, specifically, also named the "apple box of Germany" (in the local dialect: "Aeppel kischt"), has hills full with apple, but also pear, and plum trees, most of them hybrids.

Every local family used to have a little piece of land somewhere on the hills surrounding the respective village, with a couple of nice, old trees on them (Streuobstwiesen). Comes fall, one can go and harvest, collecting the fruit on the tree, but also those that have already fallen to the ground. It was normal for us as kids to go for a walk with the parents on these hills in fall, collect fruit, pick some berries, eat some apples and plums on the way, and mostly we would not stick to our own families piece of land, but picked fruit, pretty much only for direct consumption, from any tree that had something nice to offer.

Lots of the apple varieties there are not commercially available in a normal grocery store. Some are very small and sour ("Viezaepfel") and used exclusively for Viez-production. Some have a very strong skin, tough texture, and a not very sweet, but really great flavor, like "Boskop"; those are used a lot in apple pies, or apple sauce, where they are mostly mixed with other varieties as well, or as Bratapfel.
One can harvest all the apples on one's own land, bring them to Merziger, the fruit juice company, stand in line with all the other locals with their boxes and barrels and baskets full of fruit, get the harvest weighed, and according to yield, trade it in against fresh apple juice and Viez. The company receives the harvest of the year for nothing, all locally grown, fresh, and basically organic, and we, the apple tree owners, don't have to deal with fruit press and bottling and, if having only the sour and tart Viezaepfel, receive sweet apple juice we'd never get out of these fruit.
A perfect deal.