"The haskap berry, which comes from East Asia and is hardly known in Europe, is said to be a guarantee of long life and good eyesight. Franconian organic farmer Michael Decker wants to change that.
The proud Ainu people, the gathering and hunting natives on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, did not know the blessings and curses of progress, but they did know the truth of nature. The Ainu discovered that an inconspicuous, tear-shaped, blueberry-blue fruit gave them true miraculous powers and called it haskap, the berry of long life and good eyesight. They guarded their secret for thousands of years and only shared it with the rest of the Japanese during the times of the shoguns, who still hold the haskap berry in the highest esteem today.
Its juice is sold in pharmacies and pilots like to drink it on long night flights so that their eyes do not tire.
The greatest mystery, however, is that the rest of the world does not know it, and took notice of the fruit only a few years ago when some daring pioneers in Europe and North America decided that the secret of long life and good eyesight should not be an exclusive privilege of the Japanese.
What kind of world do we want to leave to our children?
One of them is organic farmer Michael Decker from Cadolzburg in Franconia, who saw a haskap bush for the first time in his life ten years ago at an agricultural trade fair in Berlin. "I had never heard of the berry, even though I studied agricultural science," says Decker, who after a short period of reflection decided to plant the blue fruit in his fields - without knowing what he was letting himself in for, because there was no specialist literature or experience and he had to acquire all the knowledge himself. But for exactly this challenging reason, he never wanted to be anything other than a farmer.
The history of his farm does not go back to the Pleistocene like that of the Ainu, but at least to the year 1600. Since then, Decker's family has led him without interruption and always with a passion for experiments. In addition to classics such as sugar beet, wheat and spelt, the Deckers also grow a wide range of specialty crops such as asparagus and pumpkin, and they have even tried melons and artichokes.
When Michael Decker's son was born in 2017 and he asked himself what kind of world he wanted to leave behind for his children, he converted the business to organic farming - and the Haskap, one of the last ancient berries spared from industrial rationalization and optimization breeding, came in handy.
Utmost respect for nature
Michael Decker points to the ceiling of his office, where reddish spots shimmer through the white paint. Some time ago, his young son dropped a bottle of Haskap juice here, which then splashed all over the office. He painted the ceiling dozens of times afterward, but the juice is so intense that nothing can cover it up. And it is precisely this intensity that is a sign of the high concentration of healthy ingredients contained in the Haskap. "If you cut open an industrially grown blueberry, its flesh is white. With the Haskap, it is deep red, as it should be by nature," says Decker, who as an organic farmer consistently avoids any artificial early ripening of his berries in greenhouses or with foil because, out of respect for nature, he does not want to interfere with its processes - for which the Haskap berry thanks him and our health in many ways.
The concentration of the plant pigment anthocyanin alone, which binds harmful free radicals in the body, is four times higher in the Haskap than in a blueberry, for example, and the concentration of antioxidants, which protect cells from decay and have an anti-inflammatory effect, is three times higher. The berries are also bursting with iron, magnesium, phosphorus, calcium, zinc and vitamins A, C and E, so they not only strengthen eyesight, but are also good against cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, stress symptoms and even cancer.
Highly delicate and very capricious
It was only in 2018 that Haskap was approved as a food in Europe, and Michael Decker was one of the very first people to plant it. Today, the miracle fruit grows on 20 of his 100 hectares, making him the largest Haskap producer in Germany. However, he himself does not believe that he is at the forefront of an impending mass movement and that Haskap will make a global career as the next superfood, because it is too capricious and labor-intensive for that.
Its skin is so thin that - similar to the highly delicate Mieze Schindler strawberry variety - it only lasts for a few days after harvest, and its demands on soil and irrigation are so high that it keeps Decker constantly on his toes. He has to fertilize non-stop and keep an eye on the pH value, cover the soil between the bushes with fabric and protect his plants with fences from deer, which obviously also enjoy a long life.
But for Decker, the advantages outweigh all this capriciousness: The Haskap ripens as early as May, making it the first berry to be harvested in Germany, far ahead of the strawberry. On the one hand, its taste is reminiscent of a potpourri of all imaginable forest fruits, seasoned with subtle cherry notes, and on the other hand, it is something completely unique, much more than just the sum of these aromas, a taste as primal and profound, as complex and powerful as no other berry. And in the kitchen, it is an all-rounder, which is why it is highly valued by the Franconian two-star chefs Alexander Herrmann and Tobias Bätz from Wirsberg, among others.
Christmas visit to Hokkaido
Michael Decker uses the berry, whose season is over by the beginning of July at the latest, to make direct juice and balsamic vinegar, fruit spread and fruit wine, powder and mustard, and during Advent, even a punch. His children eat Haskap berries day and night, his customers repeatedly confirm their beneficial effects, and he himself would like to learn a lot more about the fruit of the Ainu if he only found the time. The last of their descendants still live in Hokkaido and could provide first-hand information - so it's high time for a Christmas visit with Franconian Haskap punch." [1]
Haskap Edible Berry Plant, Honeysuckle, Blue Haskap Fruit Tree
1. Die Frucht der Früchte. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (online) Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH. May 17, 2024. Von Jakob Strobel y Serra
