Cider apples in Nordinc and Baltic countries

[Sergio Rossi]

Hi, I write from Helsinki, south of Finland, were I have had a micro cider production for a few years now. This thread is about apples varieties which can be found or could be grown in this part of the world, and of course which are good to use for cider making :)

Personally I have had a chance to try different types of summer and early spring apples, but all turned out producing a rather boring cider. That could be also because in my first attempts I had  all sort of issues which might have affect the final result... 

4 years ago I tried a winter variety called Antonovka, originally from Ukraine but which used to be very common in Finland, so many old Antonovka trees can be found rather easily around here. I liked the result so since then I have sticked to it. 

I would love to hear others experiences with Antonovka, but also:

- which apples would make a good blend with Antonovka?

- which apples gave you more cider-satisfaction?

Of course we are looking at this part of the World :)

Cheers!
Sergio

[jeff.k...@gmail.com]

Hi Sergio

I am in Umeå, northern Sweden and have been experimenting with climate-appropriate cider trees for about 10 years.  I love Antonovka.  Extremely cold-hardy, nice flavour, stores well and produces massive harvests.  The two biggest trees I have on my harvest rotation up here (I harvest people's backyard trees) routinely produce over 300 kg of apples per tree.  Another big plus is that Antonovka is a common rootstock, which means that if you are looking to establish an orchard on the cheap and can wait a few years, you can buy rootstocks instead of trees and just let them grow up without grafting anything to them.  Blomqvists Plantskola in Vasa sells them.  However, Antonovka is a dessert apple and does not have meaningful quantities of tannins.  I have been getting my tannins by incorporating ornamental crabapples into my blends but have also been searching out wild bittersweet varieties in Sweden.  I have found two outstanding bittersweet appletrees growing wild in Sigtuna and two bittersharp trees in Umeå.  I will save you the trouble:  no Scandinavian or Finnish "named" apples contain any meaningful quantities of tannins.   Your best bet to find bittersweets is to follow Claude Jolicoeur's advice and look for local wild varieties where you live.  

Ciderboden here in Umeå has had success with making a high quality cider with early Scandinavian varieties like Transparente Blanche and Sävstaholm, having won the Swedish cider championships a couple of times.  They are cagey about the exact details of their process but I know it involves a very long maceration stage before pressing.  

Jeff

[tanja s]

Hej Jeff,

That’s a very useful info. I am in Sweden this summer and will try to follow your tips on Blomqvist plantskola. Do you know if there is any chance to grow Antonovka them from seeds? I don’t think I would be able to bring the rootstocks with me to chile … I mean the birds spread them, so there should be some possibility, no?

Cheers 

/Tanja 

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On 25 May 2023, at 12:52 AM, jeff.k...@gmail.com <jeff.k...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Sergio

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[Sergio Rossi]

Hi Jeff, thank you for your message!

Glad to hear that you also have good experience with Antonovka. This year I´m testing also a new variety, which I have been told it has been used in Finland to make apple wine, here it its called Lepaan Liereä, and according to google its a stream of Antonovka x Åkerö (!) Let see in a few months how does it taste like.

We have several ornamental apple trees around here where I live, this autumn I have to collect a decent amount of those and make a test batch together with Antonovka. I guess 1/4 or 1/5 could be sufficient?

I will also think about how to look for wild trees: living close to the city, this might be harder.

Another source of tannins which I have been thinking of is the Aronia berry (Chocke berry): it is very common here in Finland, and it is ripe in October, just in time. Added to fresh apple juice is great, that has been tested already many times, maybe it can work also with hard cider?

Regards

Sergio

[Eivind Krey Nitter]

It is absolutely possible to grow Antonovka seedlings (which are for the most part used for rootstocks). They are sold somewhere at least, maybe Blomqvist can help you.
The big question is, how close to the original will the fruit get? (Antonovka, as any other apple trees, are normally made by grafting I would guess.) One property of Antonovka seedlings when used for rootstocks is that they are rather true to their type, at least so I have heard. Which makes the outcome more predictable, often a good thing.
I live in eastern Norway and it would agreeably be very handy if those rootstocks could grow into useful apple trees all by themselves.

[Sergio Rossi]

Hi Tanja, this might be a better option for you to transport to Chile: https://www.omenapuu.com/tuote/antonovka-omena/

- Sergio

[Sergio Rossi]

Ok, that is probably what Eivind was talking about!

[tanja s]

Thank you Sergio and Eivind:) 

Cheers 

/Tanja 

Sent from my iPhone

On 25 May 2023, at 4:52 PM, Sergio Rossi <rossi....@gmail.com> wrote:

Ok, that is probably what Eivind was talking about!

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[Claude Jolicoeur]

I have a question for those who are in Nordic Countries...

Which are the most grown commercial apples in the orchards of your country?

I am talking here commercial eating varieties and not cider varieties.

Thanks...

[Änis Ayedi]

In Sweden out of around 1500 hectares, the five most common are:

Ingrid Marie (365 hektar), Aroma (305 hektar), Discovery (181 hektar), Cox Orange (95 hektar) och Gravensteiner (69 hektar). 

After those it’s the following:

Rubinola, Frida, Elise, Alice och Rubinstar

Source: 

https://fransverige.se/svenska-ravaror-all-varldens-mat/vilka-varor-marks/livsmedel-fran-sverige/odling-och-uppfodning/odling-av-applen/

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[Donatas Genys]

Hi Claude,

In modern Lithuanian orchards most popular eating apple varieties are Auksis (local Lithuanian variety),  Szampion, Alwa, Ligol, Lobo, Rubinola, Rubin, Geneva Early, Melrose, Antonovka. 

In old orchards it is still growing Lithuanian Pippin, Spartan, Cortland, local clone of Gravenstein, Berzininku Ananas, McIntosh.            

Donatas

[Sergio Rossi]

Hi!

I had to search from the net, according to this website:Domestic apple

"Finland's climate is favourable for the production of aromatic apples, which is why Finnish apples have a wonderfully crisp and fresh taste. Domestic apples make the best apple delicacies in baking, cooking, juices and jams. Professionally cultivated domestic apples last well beyond Christmas thanks to good storage possibilities.

Domestic apple varieties are divided into summer, autumn and winter varieties. 

Summer varieties include Geneva Early and Valkea kuulas ("White Moon"). 

Autumn varieties are Discovery and Collina. 

Winter varieties are Eva, Lobo, Aroma/Amorosa Rubinola, Santana, Rubin, Rubinstar, Elise, Royal, Gala and Gloster. 

Satotuku's domestic apples come mainly from the Granlid farm in Åland, where the fresh island breeze ripens the apples into highly aromatic and freshly tart apples."

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[Claude Jolicoeur]

Thank you for these interesting answers. Many of the varieties you have mentioned are unknown to me... But some are among our own commercial varieties here in Quebec: the most grown variety is McIntosh, and other commercially important ones are Spartan, Empire, Cortland and Lobo. These are our older traditional sorts. And there are surplus of these that is sold at low price and used for making cider... More recent plantings have mostly included varieties such as Honeycrisp, Gala and other more modern varieties.

Are these locally grown apples generally available in food stores? Or is it mostly imported apples that are sold in stores? Sergio mentions he had to search the net - which makes me think the varieties he mentions are not generally available in food stores...

[Donatas Genys]

In case of Lithuania all the varieties which I have mentioned in my previous message can be found in supermarkets or in local farmers markets.

Actually Honeycrisp and Gala are also grown locally. In supermarkets Gala apples quite often are imported from Poland.

In my orchard https://www.facebook.com/klumpessodaiI I have about 300 Honeycrisp trees.

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[Eivind Krey Nitter]

Hi there hailing from Norway!

Fruit (apples mostly) production, mill. kg:  1959: 98,2 -- 1969: 86,8 -- 1979: 63,0 -- 1989: 78,8 -- 1999: 15,9 -- 2019: 18,9

As you can see the trend of fruit production here has been inn steep decline since the middle of the last century but has stabilized recently and is probably somewhat making a comeback due to the recent cider trend (which again is made possible by changes in legislation). Still, self sufficiency is below to digits these days and local apples are for the most part sold in season.

In Norway, autumn apples are Discovery and Summerred, late autumn apples are Gravenstein and Aroma (these four varieties combined = 95+%). Rubinstep (the third version of the czhec rubin-family) is recently looking to be the new winter apple with sales from January.

The recent cider movement in Norway is based on the four first-mentioned desert varieties and makes good use of discarded fresh-eating fruit as an economic opportunity.

In Norway and the Nordic countries we also have quite a few heirloom varietes with some very interesting flavor- and other characteristics, out of fashion now for different reasons. Including Haugmann, Torstein, FIlippa, Åkerö, Sävstaholm and many more. When I started making cider a few years back, I was initially very interested in getting hold of cider apples from abroad (due to the lack of local cider apples), thinking this was how to "get ahead of the field". Now however, I regard this as a dead end, thinking that exploring the capabilities of old, lost and forgotten heirloom varieties is the most interesting way forward, establishing something really unique for our region. Mix in a few feral apple varieties with bittersweet qualities, maybe start propagating the best ones. But in conclusion, the champagne style cider with fresh natural acidity that we can make here is probably the most interesting product, along with different winter/ice ciders I guess. But maybe, or even probably, in the end -- other apples than the main desert apple varieties will show themselves most fit for the purpose.

[Søren Ugilt Larsen]

Hello, 

Interesting to hear about apple varieties in other Nordic countries. Here’s a bit of information about the Danish condition. 

The most recent statistics (to my knowledge) of commercial production of apple and pears in Denmark is from 2017 and is summarised here:

https://www.dst.dk/Site/Dst/Udgivelser/nyt/GetPdf.aspx?cid=18796

It is in Danish, but I think you can get the info from the figure and the tables. 

Just as Eivind describes for Norway, the commercial apple production in Denmark has been reduced severely, with an 80% reduction in the area over 40 years (see the figure). The dominant varieties have also shifted over time (the first table). In 1977, the dominant varieties were Cox Orange, Spartan and Ingrid Marie, but now Elstar is leading with 18% of the area followed by Ingrid Marie and Aroma. However, a broad range of apple varieties are grown commercially as seen from the last table which also shows when the different varieties were planted. 

As for cider production, there is also increasing interest in Denmark, but I am not aware of any data for this. Quite a few producers use dessert varieties, and others tend to prefer cider varieties from e.g. UK and France. 

Best wishes 

Søren

[eer...@gmail.com]

Coming to this only now, hope this is still on help. 

Apparently in Estonia, the most common varieties are listed at the bottom of page  43 (doesn’t allow copying): https://www.pikk.ee/upload/files/Taimekasvatus/Puuviljandus%20Eestis.pdf But I haven’t seen any data on actual numbers of trees per variety.

 

From my subjective appreciation, Suislepp, Tellissaare, Liivi kuldrenett, Liivi sibulõun, Talvenauding, Antonovka, Valge klaar (transparente blanche) would be the most familiar home garden varieties.

 

For a detailed list of all the main varieties, including some with descriptions (in estonian) and pictures: https://sordivaramu.emu.ee/kategooria.php?mis=ounviljalised

 

On Latvia, I've heard good words about this (https://www.puresdis.lv/) research institute, but I don't see any papers published on their site. 

Best,

Eero

[Claude Jolicoeur]

Thanks all who responded. Great help for the preparation of my presentation for the Seminar in Riga next month...

https://www.celotajs.lv/lv/conf/ciderRF

Hope to see many of you there!