General Charles de Gaulle once stated: “How can you govern a country that has 246 varieties of cheese?”

The then-president of France was commenting obliquely on the fractiousness of French politics at the time. From 1946 until 1958, the French Republic had 21 administrations.

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Salt Spring Island, which saw 62 per cent of residents who voted in the Sept. 9 referendum turning down municipal incorporation, doesn’t produce that many cheeses. In fact, since sisters Julia and Susan Grace, owners of Moonstruck Cheese, retired this year, only one commercial cheese-making outfit remains.

Cheese might not be the home-grown foodstuff that best defines the island’s character. When I asked acquaintances who live on the island their opinions, they argued.

“Well, our lamb is really good.”

“Coffee.”

“Seriously? Come on, people, it’s pot.”

Then somebody suggested apples.

“The island grows hundreds of different kinds of apples,” she said. “That’s pretty remarkable for the island’s size.”

Salt Spring Island grows more than 450 varieties of apples on its 183 square kilometres — from acme to Zestar in 2016, according to the Salt Spring Island Apple Festival website (saltspringapplefestival.org). The island’s apple-growing history officially dates back to the 1860s.

Many of the apples are heritage varieties once common in family orchards throughout North America’s fruit-growing regions, but now difficult to find.

They include Cox’s orange pippins, a once-popular 19th-century English eating apple with firm, nutty-flavoured flesh, and the Calville blanc d’hiver, a late-ripening 16th-century French dessert apple — and the apple of choice for making tarte tatin, a French caramel-apple tart.

Other old-time varieties found on the island include Adam’s pearmains (1820s, England), Grimes goldens (1830s, Virginia), Esopus Spitzenburgs (1800s, New York), Pitmaston pineapples (19th century, England), Antonovkas (1820s, Russia), Arkansas blacks (1840s, U.S.), belles de Boskoop (1850s, Netherlands), Bismarcks (1870s, Australia), Cornish gillyflowers (1817, Cornwall), Gascoyne’s scarlets (1871, England), muscadettes de Dieppe (1750, Normandy) and more.

The apples come in different shapes and colours. Many sport spots and stripes. Some are for eating within weeks of being picked. Some store well. Some shine when cooked. Some are cider apples.

And Salt Spring has a cidery to take care of that.

Some of the varieties almost disappeared. Across North America, many orchards were replaced by trees that produced apples preferred by supermarket managers — apples that stored and travelled well, with little consideration for flavour. Some orchards were replaced by supermarkets, parking lots, golf courses or subdivisions. Some were turned over to better-paying crops, such as grapes — as is happening in the Okanagan today. Some were forgotten, while shrubs and other trees took over.

But apple enthusiasts have been hunting down old varieties in old orchards and forgotten back-40s to keep these tastes of yesteryear from extinction.

And the fact that so many of these agricultural heirlooms, in addition to many 20th-century varieties, can be found on Salt Spring today says a great deal about the island’s character.

To maintain the varieties with history on the island, somebody had to tend the orchards and nurture the trees. To re-introduce the old varieties, somebody had to source, ship, plant and tend them.

Furthermore, many of the island’s apples are grown organically.

About 10,000 people live on the island year-round. They include a high proportion of artists, musicians, writers and artisans, as well as farmers and fisherfolk. These occupations all require independent thinking and values not usually in evidence on big-city streets.

Add to the mix a few thousand retirees who’ve left high-stress jobs elsewhere for lives of less bustle and more beauty.

This means the island’s community includes personalities of varying shape and colour, with all kinds of different spots and stripes, prime picking times, and ways to shine.

However they make their living, however disparate and varied their opinions and values, most Salt Spring Islanders have deliberately chosen to make the island their home. Every day, they’re putting roots down there, they’re reaching for a slice of that paradise tarte tatin.

Some sources say France produces more than 700 different varieties of cheese. Others say more.

I wonder how many apple varieties will turn up at today’s Salt Spring Island apple festival.

keiran_monique@rocketmail.com