Antonovka (russian: Антоновка, pl, Antonówka) is a group of late-fall or early-winter

apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

cultivars A cultivar is a type of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and when Plant propagation, propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and st ...

with a strong acid flavor that have been popular in

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

(

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

) as well as in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

and

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

. The most popular Russian variety is Common Antonovka (Антоновка обыкновенная), from which other cultivars derive. It was developed by pioneer Russian naturalist and plant breeder Ivan V. Michurin at his experimental orchard in the Tambov Oblast and introduced in 1888. Antonovka is famous for its unsurpassed strong and pleasant fruit aroma.

Polish varieties

Poland has two varieties: ''Antonówka Zwykła'' (same, as in Russia) and ''Antonówka Biała'' also known as ''Śmietankowa'' (Antonówka White or Creamy) with considerably larger and whiter fruit ripening in late September, but also a shorter shelf life.

Hardiness

The popularity of the Antonovka tree is enhanced by its ability to sustain long harsh winters, typical in many regions of Eastern Europe and Russia. It also further popular for its superior fruit preservation qualities. These qualities made the Russian variety especially popular among the

dacha A dacha ( rus, дача, p=ˈdatɕə, a=ru-dacha.ogg) is a seasonal or year-round second home, often located in the exurbs of post-Soviet countries, including Russia. A cottage (, ') or shack serving as a family's main or only home, or an outbu ...

owners, and it remains widely grown at dachas in many

Post-Soviet states The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...

, where it is often called "the people's apple" (народное яблоко). Extremely tolerant of cold weather, and because it produces a single, deep taproot (unusual among apple trees), Antonovka is propagated for use as a rootstock. Antonovka rootstock provides a cold-hardy (to −45 °C), well-anchored, vigorous, standard-sized tree.

Uses

Due to the relatively low ratio of sugars in the fruit, Antonovka apples are especially well-suited for

apple pie An apple pie is a fruit pie in which the principal filling ingredient is apples. The earliest printed recipe is from England. Apple pie is often served with whipped cream, ice cream ("apple pie à la mode"), or cheddar cheese. It is generally ...

s and late

apple wine ''Apfelwein'' ( German, 'apple wine'), or ''Viez'' ( Moselfranken, Saarland, Trier, ''vice'') or ''Most'' ( Austria, Switzerland, South Germany, ''must'') are German words for cider. It is made from a mix of sour tasting apples, such as "Bohna ...

. The taste of the wine is noticeably lighter than wine from sweeter cultivars. In Poland, Antonówka is used mostly for apple preserves. Kursk antonovka

Cultivar of Antonovka

Antonovka is a cultivar of vernacular selection, which began to spread from Kursk region of

in the 19th century. While the fruit-bearing trees have not received a wide recognition outside the former Soviet Union, many nurseries do use Antonovka rootstocks, since they impart a degree of winter-hardiness to the grafted varieties.

Culture

Ivan Bunin Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin ( or ; rus, Ива́н Алексе́евич Бу́нин, p=ɪˈvan ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ ˈbunʲɪn, a=Ivan Alyeksyeyevich Bunin.ru.vorb.oga; – 8 November 1953) was the first Russian writer awarded the ...

's early short story, " Antonov Apples" (1900), is a kind of

ode An ode (from grc, ᾠδή, ōdḗ) is a type of lyric poetry. Odes are elaborately structured poems praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally. A classic ode is structured in three majo ...

to this apple cultivar as a lyric metaphor to the departing world of Russian landed gentry. On August 19, 2008 the monument to Antonovka apple was unveiled in

Kursk Kursk ( rus, Курск, p=ˈkursk) is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym rivers. The area around Kursk was the site of a turning point in the Soviet–German stru ...

. The sculpture was by

Vyacheslav Klykov Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Klykov (russian: Вячесла́в Миха́йлович Клы́ков; 19 October 1939 — 2 June 2006) was a Russian sculptor who specialized in public monuments to key figures of national history and culture. He was ...

and has a diameter of 1.5 meter.

Aia Ilu

The Antonovka is a

parent A parent is a caregiver of the offspring in their own species. In humans, a parent is the caretaker of a child (where "child" refers to offspring, not necessarily age). A ''biological parent'' is a person whose gamete resulted in a child, a male t ...

, to Aia Ilu.

References

External links

* * {{Apples, state=collapsed Apple cultivars Agriculture in Russia