Mostindien Apple Orchards

Thurgau's defining landscape is apple country. Roughly 1,400 hectares of orchard cover the southern slopes of the canton, blossoming white in late April and turning the roadside Hofläden into cider-and-pastry stops from September through November. The trees are mostly espaliered for mechanical harvesting now, but pockets of high-trunk traditional orchards survive in the Untersee and around Tägerwilen.

The Mostgalleria at Arenenberg and the Most-Indien-Museum at Schloss Roggwil both interpret the apple-cider story for visitors. For the orchards themselves, the marked Apfelweg from Kreuzlingen to Romanshorn (37 km, walkable in two days) passes through the densest concentration of farms and dozens of farm stalls.

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A story
Thurgau produces around a third of Switzerland's apples and was nicknamed Mostindien — 'cider India' — in the 19th century. The name was a joking comparison with the British East Indies, a reference to the cider boom that turned the canton's rural economy into something approaching a colonial monoculture. Apple-related place names dot the canton: Most-Indien Museum at Roggwil, the Apfelweg cycling route, the Most-Galleria at Schloss Arenenberg.

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