Keeping apples

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This will sound like a silly question, but here goes. We brought home a forty pound box of apples on Friday. Someone mentioned on another thread about storing them in the basement. Since this is our first time to have a basement, what is the best way to do that? Do you leave them in their box, or is it best for them to be separated, or maybe individually wrapped with paper towels or something? (We used to can our pears, but I'm hoping to keep the apples to eat raw.)

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), October 16, 2001

Answers

Make applesauce!!

-- Charleen in WNY (harperhill@eznet.net), October 16, 2001.

We have a fruit cellar, but I suppose it is pretty close to the climate of an un-heated portion of the basement. We don't wrap ours in anything. I use laundry baskets. We pick ours off the tree so there is less chance of bruising and stack them carefully in the basket. The cellar stays bout 50 degrees, so it is fairly cool in there. I just go through them once in a while and take out the bad ones. But they generally last at least til January before they start to get soft and wrinkly. Then I might use them for hot applesauce, or a crisp or pie. Hope this helps.

-- Melissa (me@home.net), October 16, 2001.

How long they keep will depend on the type of apples they are. I grow Goldrush apples just for this purpose. They actually get better in root cellar storage. There are other good storage apples, especially among the heirloom varieties. Store only the perfect ones, and like Melissa said go through them every once in a while. I separate my layers of apples with newspaper, and I've heard that some people wrap each individual apple too, but I don't. I've also heard of storing them between layers of dry, clean leaves. My dirt floored root cellar stays between 40-50 during the winter. My mom keeps hers in insulated coolers in her garage because the basement is too warm. Hope this helps.

-- vicki in NW OH (thga76@aol.com), October 16, 2001.

The best way I have kept apples is described in the book 'Root Cellaring' by Mike & Nancy Bubel (a very worth while book) At as close to 32º as possible and high humidity 80 to 90% and in almost sealed tubs (even of mixed produce) in which the ethylene gas slows down the respiration after the oxygen is depleted. It works good.

-- Thumper (sleldr@yahoo.com), October 17, 2001.

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