Storing Apples Through Winter Without Losing Flavour

Not Every Apple Is a Keeper

The first rule of winter storage is choosing the right fruit. Some apples are born to sit in a cool shed until March; others are at their best within a fortnight of picking and will only disappoint you if you try to keep them. Get this right and the rest of the job becomes remarkably easy.

As a rough guide, early varieties such as Discovery, Beauty of Bath and Worcester Pearmain are eaters, not keepers. Enjoy them fresh, cook them, or turn them into juice. Mid-season apples like Cox's Orange Pippin, Egremont Russet and Ribston Pippin will hold for a few weeks to a couple of months in good conditions. The true long-haulers are the late varieties picked in October: Bramley's Seedling, Annie Elizabeth, Newton Wonder, Ashmead's Kernel and Edward VII. Given the right treatment, these will still be firm and full of flavour well into the new year.

It also helps to know your tree. Fruit from a young, heavily cropped tree tends to store less well than apples from a mature tree carrying a moderate crop. If you have a light year, treat the surplus as a bonus rather than a challenge.

Pick and Handle as Though It Matters

It does matter. Every bruise, nick and puncture is a doorway for rot, and rot spreads. Pick by hand, cupping the fruit and twisting gently upwards so the stalk comes away cleanly. Never shake the tree, never use a pole to knock fruit down, and never, under any circumstances, store windfalls. A windfall may look sound, but the fall has already bruised the flesh inside, and it will be brown within a fortnight.

Pick slightly under-ripe rather than slightly over-ripe. Fruit that is still hard and green-tinged will ripen gently in store, developing the aroma and sweetness you want in December. Fruit that is already soft and fragrant when picked is on its way downhill.

Handle everything as if it were eggs. Tip apples gently into a padded basket or trug rather than dropping them into a bucket, and don't carry more than you can manage comfortably. Sort as you go: perfect fruit for storage, damaged fruit for the pan, the press or the freezer.

Cool, Dark and Damp, with Air

Three conditions decide whether your apples keep their flavour or turn mealy and bland. The first is temperature: aim for 2°C to 4°C. A little colder risks freezing and collapsing the flesh; much warmer and the apples ripen too fast, losing bite and aroma. A frost-free garage, a stone outbuilding, an unheated cellar or a well-insulated shed all work well. The kitchen and the greenhouse do not.

The second is darkness. Light encourages greening and sprouting, and warmth follows light in most storage spaces. Keep boxes covered or tucked away from windows.

The third is humidity, which is where many growers come unstuck. Apples want around 85 to 90 per cent relative humidity — far damper than most of us would guess. Too dry and the fruit shrivels, wrinkling at the stalk end and losing that snap. Too wet and mould takes hold. Standing the boxes in a tray of slightly damp sand, or damping the floor of the store occasionally, helps hold the balance. Good ventilation matters too, so leave gaps between containers and avoid sealing anything airtight.

One more thing: keep apples away from other fruit and vegetables. Apples release ethylene gas as they ripen, which speeds up the decline of everything nearby — and strong-smelling produce will taint the fruit in return.

Trays, Boxes and Newspaper

However you store your apples, the principle is the same: prevent them touching each other and prevent heavy weights pressing down.

• Slatted wooden shelves are ideal — single layers of fruit, stalk uppermost, with air circulating underneath.
• Wooden or cardboard boxes work well if you line them with newspaper and stack no more than three or four layers deep.
• Wrapping each apple individually in newspaper, or in a square of tissue, cushions it and slows the spread of rot from neighbour to neighbour.
• Traditional apple trays and shallow crates do the same job and let you inspect fruit at a glance.
• Never use plastic bags or sealed containers — trapped moisture and ethylene will ruin a crop in days.

Label your boxes with the variety and the date you laid them down. Come February, you will be glad you did.

Check, Sort, and Use as You Go

Storing apples is not a case of filling a box and forgetting it. Inspect the whole crop every ten days to a fortnight, tipping each apple gently into your hand and feeling for soft spots around the stalk and the base. A single rotting apple releases ethylene and spores that will shorten the life of everything around it, so remove anything suspect immediately. A small bruise can be cut out and the apple used at once; anything with brown, spongy flesh or a mouldy smell should go straight to the compost.

Eat the softer, smaller and less perfect fruit first, keeping the finest specimens for later. Expect a steady attrition through the winter — losing a tenth of a well-stored crop is normal, and losing half means something in your conditions needs adjusting.

When Keeping Fails, Make Something

Softening apples are not a failure; they are an invitation. Windfalls and bruised fruit make excellent juice, and a blend of sharp and sweet varieties pressed and fermented gives a cider with far more character than anything bought from a shelf. Cookers stew and freeze beautifully, and a spiced apple chutney made in November will see you through to the following autumn. In a good orchard year, nothing need be wasted — the skill is simply knowing which apples to keep and which to use while they are still at their best.