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Unusual
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Fashioned Fruit
Trees.
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Tree Project.
Service Tree – Whitebeam – Sorbus Torminalis.
The Wild Service Tree is a native and has been recorded as growing in
the UK for thousands of years. The family name of Sorbus is the same as
the smaller, more ornamental, Mountain Ash which is famous for the
display of brightly coloured berries that it puts on in the Winter. The
Wild Service Tree is definitely a much larger tree growing up to 25
metres and therefore not suited to the average back garden, although the
similar, French, Sorbus Domestica, is a lot smaller. However, if you
have a pony paddock, smallholding or any field where you want to plant
the odd specimen tree, this may be of interest. The Service tree is a
hardy native of Europe and is not very common these days, but it used to
be famous in centuries past for its fruit.
After flowering in May and June the fleshy brown berries looking a bit
like small Apples, develop and ripen in August, but remain hard until
they have been “Bletted” to soften them. Back in the 1600’s and 1700’s
they were sold in street markets along with more familiar fruit, but
their harvesting and usage goes back to the Romans who made an alcoholic
drink by fermenting grain and Sorbus fruits to produce a kind of beer
before the introduction of hops. In later times an alcoholic drink, said
to be good for colic, called "Chequers" was made from the berries. Myth
says that this is the origin of the popular name of “Chequers” for pubs.
The fruits can also be used to flavour other alcoholic drinks such as
whisky in the same way that sloe gin is made with Sloes or Blackthorn
berries.
The Wild Service Tree suckers freely, and not being hybridised, will
also grow true to type from its own seeds, although they may well take
18 months after sowing before they sprout.
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