From the Living Museum
Duchess of Oldenburg
- Origin
- Russia / Eastern Europe (Borovinka and related forms)
- Era
- 18th–19th c. intro
- Type / use
- Culinary · Fresh eating (early)
From the ArchiveFilm
Watch its story
The Apple That Braved the Prairie
A short narrated history of Duchess of Oldenburg, told through the archive illustrations of our apple collection.
Illustrations: Royal Charles Steadman (1918) and Ellen Isham Schutt (1912), USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection, National Agricultural Library (public domain). Narrated with a synthetic voice.
Watch on YouTubeHistory & Stories
Introduced to the West in the 18th–19th centuries. Early-season, medium fruit with yellow skin and red stripes. Soft, juicy, aromatic flesh. Unique for its extreme winter hardiness and its historical role as a tough, early variety for cold climates. Short storage.
Folklore & Name
Russian/Eastern European (Borovinka and related forms). Introduced for extreme winter hardiness. Early, soft, aromatic fruit typical of many Russian types brought to North America.
Digging into the History
Below my own notes, here is what the old fruit books and today’s collections record about this apple, kept apart from the stories people tell.
What we know
Duchess of Oldenburg is a Russian apple. The UK National Fruit Collection says it was "known in Russia in the 1700s or earlier but first known in the UK in about 1817," and lists Russian names such as Borovinka among its many synonyms 1. S.A. Beach's The Apples of New York (1905) calls it "one of the four pioneers among Russian apples in America," along with Alexander, Tetofsky and Red Astrachan. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society imported all four from the London Horticultural Society about 1835, roughly twenty years after Oldenburg reached England from Russia 2.
Robert Manning tested it in the Society's garden at Salem and described it in 1838 as "a valuable and handsome apple said to be of Russian origin" 2. It went on to prove "much superior in hardiness" to Baldwin, Rhode Island Greening and Northern Spy across the Midwest and Northwest, and Beach says its success "encouraged the importation of other Russian sorts" 2.
What we think: stories & traditions
Which duchess? We have not found an early source explaining which Duchess of Oldenburg the apple honors, or who named it, so that remains an open question. It is a grand title for a hardy farm apple.
The apple that opened the door. Its real importance is in what it led to. Because it survived winters that killed the old New England favorites, growers on the northern prairies went looking for more Russian apples 2. In that sense, many cold-country orchards owe something to this tough little striped apple.
Sources
- UK National Fruit Collection, "Duchess of Oldenburg." www.nationalfruitcollection.org.uk/full2.php?id=1685&fruit=apple
- S.A. Beach, The Apples of New York, Vol. 2 (Albany: J.B. Lyon, 1905), "Oldenburg," pp. 150–152. archive.org/details/applesofnewyork02beacrich/page/150
Curious about Duchess of Oldenburg?
Email us at drgoss@honeytreeorchard.com.