Once upon a time, winter in Serbian households was unimaginable without the well-known smell of kolakara, kozara, budimka… These apples, which produced abundantly, were in every local orchard, but over time they were supplanted by new varieties. Today, only a few trees of old varieties can be found in the gardens, and among the few guardians of this treasure in the Valjevo area is the Tanasković family from Gornja Bukovica, whose orchard has 600 trees of old autochthonous varieties of apples.
Out of some 15 hectares, which they cultivate, two hectares grow vegetables, while less than three hectares are under fruit. Darko Tanasković says that plums grow on a hectare and a half, and that the hectare was occupied by 700 apple trees, of which 600 are old varieties – budimka, kolakar and kozari, and among the newer ones there are ajdared, delišes, greni smith.
“We decided to grow old autochthonous varieties mainly for the sake of protection, because we try to use chemical preparations as little as possible. So far we have done three sprays, one more and that’s it, they don’t need to be treated more than once as new varieties. In terms of quality, they cannot be compared with other apples, they are much tastier. We love their taste, when we have these apples the children will not want to eat others”, says Tanasković.
2 old varieties of apples that are completely RESISTANT to DISEASES and PESTS
So far, it is 14 years old and in the next half century it will bear fruit regularly, and they do not plan to expand. Last year, they harvested between 35 and 40 tons of apples, 15 tons were sold for consumption, and the rest was used for brandy because there was a lot of rain.
This spring, when the trees were in full bloom, the April frost left big consequences, so they expect only five tons. Most of the harvest is sold at the market in Valjevo, some goes to the Belgrade market. They have customers from Belgrade, Šabac, Petrovac who come to their doorstep and take only a certain variety of apple.
Better price on the market for autochthonous varieties of apples
“Last year, with the old varieties, we ended up with an average price of 120 dinars per kilogram, unlike these other varieties, which were from 30 to 50 dinars. We are satisfied with that price, it should not be a bribe. We used other varieties more for brandy. It makes no sense to pick something that doesn’t sell on the market, and what is sold to perish.
A cold store is under construction, and in this way we want to expand production, because this is the only way we can have apples in stock for a longer period of time. The capacity of the cold store is about 10 tons, and we will use it mainly for storing apples that need to stand longer, while we will store the other varieties that come out until the new year as before,” says Darko Tanasković.
Milivoj Timotić, advisor for fruit growing at the Agricultural Advisory and Expert Service in Valjevo, explains that autochthonous fruit varieties are more resistant to diseases, require less protection, and can also be grown in organic production.
Due to the ideal ratio of sugar and acid, they are suitable for the production of concentrates, jams, juices. According to him, the trees in Tanasković’s plantation are grafted on a moderately lush substrate that is more suitable for dry fruit growing without irrigation, they bear fruit earlier, and produce 40 to 80 tons of quality fruit per hectare.
“We were looking to combine fruit and vegetable growing, to have a constant supply of goods for the market, and for our apple season to end. Seven of us work from home, and we are satisfied, we managed to tie it all together.
Last year for vegetables was solid, we had problems with floods, so it could not be compensated easily. As for vegetable prices, they were good last year, but this year I am not sure what will happen. The biggest problem is the import, the prices are desperate, now when we need zucchini to sell and it goes wholesale for 50 dinars per kilogram, it is 25-30 dinars. It means that the price has gone down twice. Nobody knows what we will get out of it – says Tanasković.
Our interlocutor is of the opinion that there is no future in agriculture, and that, as he says, absolutely no one is interested in the countryside.
“The village was extinguished, and only how much was invested in the buildings, the plots were cleaned, people took care of them, and now everything is gone. It would be nice to live in the countryside, if only the prices of the products were good. It might be good for hunting and tourism, since we have a lot of wild animals that cause problems”, Darko Tanasković believes.
Source: www.agromedia.rs
