Sour cherry

“Sadok vyshnevyi kolo khaty” – the cherry orchard by a white cottage from Taras Shevchenko’s poem is one of the most Ukrainian of images.

The sour cherry is a small tree or shrub growing to 4–10 m, with a rounded crown and glossy, elliptical, finely toothed leaves. In early spring it is covered in clusters of white flowers, and in summer round, dark red drupes ripen, sour or sweet-and-sour in taste. It most likely arose from a natural cross between the sweet cherry and the steppe dwarf cherry, and has been grown in Europe and western Asia since antiquity. The fruit is eaten raw or dried and made into preserves, juices and liqueurs.

Significance in the country

A white cottage surrounded by a cherry orchard is the archetypal image of the Ukrainian village, immortalised in Taras Shevchenko’s poem “Sadok vyshnevyi kolo khaty” (“A cherry orchard by the cottage”), which every Ukrainian child learns. Cherries go into varenyky, preserves and vyshnivka liqueur, and home cherry orchards grow throughout the country.

Where it grows

Grown throughout the country – in home orchards and on plantations, most often in the forest-steppe part of Ukraine, including Podolia and the Poltava region.

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