Our Humble Beginnings – A Chance Seedling

The Ambrosia apple is one of the most popular apples in Canada, and is now grown world-wide, but this mighty apple has very humble beginnings.

In the early 1990s, in the beautiful sun-drenched Similkameen Valley of British Columbia, a chance seed dropped among a row of Jonagold apples. The chance of this seedling maturing to a full-sized is far greater than the chance of winning the lottery. It had to survive the elements, as well as the pruning efforts of the orchardists.

Against all odds though, the chance seedling flourished into a beautiful, healthy apple tree which bore fruit. The apples were so attractive and delectable that pickers working in the orchard stripped the sapling clean. These workers, who spent all day working with apples, couldn’t get enough of these luscious beauties.

The Mennell family, who owned the orchard, took a chance on the seedling, and decided to produce more of the fruit. To their excitement, the resulting apples were as perfect in appearance and taste as the apples from the original mother tree.

The Mennells named the bi-coloured apple variety “Ambrosia”, which in Greek mythology means “food of the gods”.

In 1993, with the help of the Summerland Varieties Corp., (formerly PICO – Okanagan Plant Improvement Corporation), the Mennells registered the new variety of apple and took it to market.

The juicy Ambrosia apple with its appealing red blush quickly became a firm favourite with apple lovers, and today the Ambrosia apple is available for purchase in stores all around the world.

Watch a video about this story here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG8NuEoTRbg