The fragile beauty of almonds. Before the festivities began. Hustopeče attracts spring for a walk
The sunny spring weather attracted thousands of visitors to the Almond Festival last weekend. Amálka Mrkosová managed to take pictures of the flowering orchards before their arrival. We can thus enjoy the tender pulp of a flowering orchard.
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Flowering almond trees in Hustopeče, early March 26 early morning.
| Photo: Amálka Mrkosová
Almond orchards regularly welcome spring with their first flowers and invite you to take a walk connected to the lookout tower. Earlier, however, almond orchards in Hustopeče were associated with confectioners rather than tourists. After the war, three hundred wagons of almond fruit were imported into the republic every year. However, socialist Czechoslovakia was to be self-sufficient in almond production.
The almonds were commanded by Hustopeče. Do you recognize yourself in the photos among thousands?
However, the beginnings were quite rough. No one knew how to grow or harvest almonds. The first plantings were unbred seedlings as the seeds were collected. After the first harvest, no one knew what to do with her. The local orchards gradually had to learn everything. Over the years, Hustopeče almonds have become part of the Zora Olomouc Chocolate Factory. Hustopeče almonds thus appeared in various confectioneries. The first large harvest was in 1967, and as soon as the cultivated almonds, of which there were about seventeen thousand, grew up in orchards of about sixty meters of pure kernels. However, in addition to kernels, shells were also used. For example, for heating due to high calorific value, or in the transportation industry.
Pink beauty. One step closer to spring. The first almond trees are already blooming under Pálava
Gradually, however, almond orchards began to give way to apricots and economic conditions also changed. No one was interested in the orchard harvest until it remained completely unused and unmaintained. In the end, there were only two orchards of four hectares. After the change of owners, these sets threatened to disappear completely. Rescue came in five minutes from Hustopeče City Hall, which took care of saving this Central European rarity. Of the original fifty thousand trees, the last one remained. Since 2015, around hundreds of new trees have been planted every year.
source: slavnosti-mandloni.cz