How to Store Apples

I am going to explain how I store my harvest of eating and cooking apples. Apples are usually ready for harvesting during September, some of them you will eat or bake with. Quite often though you can be left with an excess of apples. For those apples that are in good condition ie no bruises and blemish free you can store them. Storing apples over winter is a great way to save money and still enjoy fruit during the winter. Cooking apples are delicious baked with sweet mincemeat and oats, or maybe you just fancy apple pie.

How to store apples

Picking apples – you will know if an apple is ripe as it should come away from the tree with a small twist.

Storing apples – you must have a perfect apple for it to store well. No marks, bruises or blemishes so pick them carefully and inspect them well.

You do not need a fancy wooden apple store, I will show you how to store apples using old newspaper and reusing old office trays.

Select suitable apples to store – no blemishes, bruises or marks.
Wipe the apple with a clean rag
Cut or tear your newspaper into squares, the size will depend on how big your apples are.
Place the apple upside down, in the centre of the newspaper, taking each corner of the newspaper to the top of the apple, these can overlap.
Place the wrapped apple right side up on an old office organiser tray.
Store in a cool dark place, I store mine in the garage.
Check the apples every 3 to 4 weeks, remove any apples that are starting to rot so they do not affect any of the surrounding apples. Usually you can smell a sweet fruit smell if there is an apple that is starting to turn bad.