Alma Museum: all about world’s oldest fruit

“How’s it going down there in the Garden of Eden?” This title literally invites to visit the paradise garden, or rather, the first Apple Museum in Kazakhstan. The idea to open one came up in 2016. The initiators wanted to preserve the cult of the famous Aport apple and restore the image of Almaty as a flourishing garden city. Today visitors to the Alma Museum can plunge into the atmosphere of the old metropolis through the prism of archival photographs, one way or another related to apples. The museum staff will tell about the ancestor of cultivated fruit varieties of the world – the Sievers apple tree, and offer to taste the “edible” exhibits.

“Visitors can taste these varieties of apples. We presented four varieties, including “Danalyk”, “Maksat”, “Kamila” and “Zaman”,” said Akmaral Assylbekova, manager, Alma Museum.

These varieties were successfully bred by Kazakh breeders. Scientists of Kazakh Research Institute of Fruit and Vegetable Growing created a total of more than 100 new varieties of apples, having preserved their genetic fund. Many have been successfully tested and are now grown on the farm. The museum exposition is regularly replenished by new crops from the unique pomological garden.

“We keep working in the pomological garden on studying and creating new varieties of Kazakhstan’s breeding. Our task is to preserve and replenish the genetic fund of fruit and berry crops. We can say that we have the main leading crop in our pomological garden. Over the years, our breeders have created many varieties,” said Svetlana Alekseyenko, researcher, Kazakh Fruit and Vegetable Research Institute.

Alma Museum together with other organizations regularly hosts a marathon to collect apples. This time, it will be possible to stock up on the crop within two days – October 16 and 17. Fruit picking is planned in the Issyk gardens.

 

Translation by Saniya Sakenova

Editing by Galiya Khassenkhanova