Ambrosia Apples

Ambrosia is a medium-sized, fragrant apple. The skin has a creamy white background, with a pink/red blush and stripes over it.

The flesh is very sweet, with not much tartness, and almost no grittiness to the texture.

Cooking Tips

The flesh is very slow to brown when cut open, and is good in salads because of this.

Storage Hints

Ambrosia Apples don’t store particularly well, so they will disappear from stores within about 4 months after harvesting. Very specialized commercial storage can extend their storage life by a few more months.

History Notes

The apple was developed by an English family who had immigrated to Canada in 1947. The family, the Mennells, found an unknown apple tree seedling growing in their orchard in the Similkameen Valley in British Columbia in the early 1990s. They allowed the seedling to grow into a tree, tried the fruit from it, and liked it. When the tree had matured enough, they grafted some branches onto other apple trees to see if it would take: it did, and the variety was off and running.

In the area of their orchard where the chance seedling was found, the Mennells had been growing Red Delicious and Golden Delicious apples, but had cut down those trees and planted Jonagold, so the exact parentage of the seedling is unknown.

Sources

Gardner, John. New Apple Cultivars: Ambrosia. Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Rural Affairs. 16 May 2005.