[Fleecewife]

We live in southern Scotland at 1000', so just on the borderline for growing apples.  Some trees have succeeded, others have faded away.  This year with the hot weather, we have a really good crop, especially on our Blenheim Orange and a cooker whose name I have forgotten.  In previous years we lose a proportion, a large proportion, of our fruit to birds and wasps.  The trees are too large to cover.  Most of the varieties we have are ready to pick in the first half of October, except one which is earlier.  I can't see the crop, which looks ready now but is not in fact ripe, will survive more than a month.  Also the frosts will almost certainly be here before October.


My question is, can apples be picked early for storage, or must the seeds be brown?

[pgkevet]

According to RHS apples store best when picked sl under-ripe.
I gave up on the idea of storing them traditionally unless i built a purpose rodent free shed and the nuiance of periodic checks. So I stew and freeze. I did a large bucketful yesterday and it turned into just 3x500ml margarine tubs. I used a mix of eating apples (the only one I happen to know the name of 'sunset' ) with a few cookers thrown in otherwise they end up too sweet - no sugar needed. The Williams pears i picked 3 days ago are ready for stewing as halves today and freezing and then i'll do more apples.
15 tubs apples/pears and the same again of currants/blueberries plus a few damson/plum does me for the period before the rhubarb is back and the raspberries start.

[Fleecewife]

Thanks pgkevet.  We tried one of the Blenheims today and although it's not ripe, it was delicious and perfect for eating.  As officially they have another 4-5 weeks to go before they're ripe, we have decided to eat them fresh from the tree, then whenever we see the first wasp hole or bird peck we will pick the rest and store them.  Once the cookers start to fall, we'll pick the rest to store.  The other varieties don't look at all ripe yet.
Until last year, I used to store apples in the freezer as you recommend, but I found I never got round to using them.  This means I still have some from previous years.  We have a proper apple store and, as long as we can eat them by the new year, they will store fine in there.  Now I know they don't have to be fully ripe, I am more confident we won't lose them to the wildlife.  Thank you.

[pharnorth]

I wonder if apples were the muse that led to invention of fridges freezers and secure storage because I have failed to find any conventional method that actually works. So our approach now is to turn it all into apple juice and put it in the freezer. We reckons we save about £200 a year by not buying shop sold juice.

[Terry T]

Pressing them into juice is another good way to store them. If you can pasteurise, you can drink a lot of apples...

[Lesley Silvester]

I pick mine when they are ripe and wrap all the perfect ones in newspaper and store in a cardboard box. This goes in with the hay. When I've eaten the marked ones (with a bit of help from the goats) I start bringing a few at a time from the barn into the house. So far they have still been edible in January. I grow Braeburns, Discovery and Egremont Russets.

[Fleecewife]

Thank you all for the suggestions everyone.


We like to be able to crunch our apples, so we don't drink much juice.  Some get added to bramble and apple jam, and some more in chutneys, some are frozen sliced and as apple sauce, but we have a wooden apple storage rack in the scullery, which works well to store them whole.  The problem this year is that we can see they will not last on the trees until they are fully ripe (wasps and birds), so we have the choice of loosing a lot of the amazing crop we have this year, or picking them a bit early.  We'll try that and see what happens over the winter 

[SallyintNorth]

And you'll report back...    please ?

[pgkevet]

My reality is that there is no way I could conceivably process or store all the apples here. In my usual OTT way there's barrel-fulls of the things and locally everyone else has enough so can't give it away. Most will rot on the ground (well get mulched with the mower anyway). I'll process a few bucketfulls for the freezer and a couple of bucketfuls of pears and keep eating the rest while they are on the trees while I mow or walk round the garden. I have the full mix of early/mid and late season varieties so can munch fresh to november.Thinsg will only get worse/better dependng on viewpoint) when the next gen of pear/cherry and plum trees I put in 2 years ago start to bear.
I've decide on vicious pruning this autumn in the old orchard and give it way more ventilation and sun and reduce the crop. The espaliers get pruned just to horizontals anyway.
What does suprise me every year is the variety of apple flavours. One of the original orchard trees has tiny apples that taste strawberry-like and one of my espaliered russets tastes like nutty toffee.

[Fleecewife]

And you'll report back...    please ?

Ah - you'll need to remind me in about February, as my memory doesn't stretch that far  .  I claim it's too full of interesting facts, but actually it's full of fluff.

[Fleecewife]

My reality is that there is no way I could conceivably process or store all the apples here. In my usual OTT way there's barrel-fulls of the things and locally everyone else has enough so can't give it away. Most will rot on the ground (well get mulched with the mower anyway). I'll process a few bucketfulls for the freezer and a couple of bucketfuls of pears and keep eating the rest while they are on the trees while I mow or walk round the garden. I have the full mix of early/mid and late season varieties so can munch fresh to november.Thinsg will only get worse/better dependng on viewpoint) when the next gen of pear/cherry and plum trees I put in 2 years ago start to bear.
I've decide on vicious pruning this autumn in the old orchard and give it way more ventilation and sun and reduce the crop. The espaliers get pruned just to horizontals anyway.
What does suprise me every year is the variety of apple flavours. One of the original orchard trees has tiny apples that taste strawberry-like and one of my espaliered russets tastes like nutty toffee.

Because we live where we do high in Scotland, at the altitude above which apples don't grow well, every apple is precious.  I grew up in East Anglia where we had the type of orchard glut you describe.  Some trees were never even cropped.  There was one tree though which we loved as children.  At harvest time it grew a massive crop of small, fresh green apples, crispy and sweet but not storable.  We would pick 6 at a time and spend the day eating them.  We would pick a box full to take to the men doing the combining, so they could enjoy them during their lunch break.  The tree is still there, but for some reason the fruit is not the same.  I've no idea what variety it is 

[Steph Hen]

I keep wondering/planning on storage, but we're eating them as fast as they ripen.

Discovery, a cooker,  something yellow big and mealy.

Plus the odd half doz for various friends. Got some cookers/dual purpose from a friend's trees, pressed them for juice and apple vinegar. Next batch of these will become cider. But as of yet, none set aside for the winter/next year.

[Anke]

As we don't have cool enough and mouse-proof storage, we have invested in a crusher and borrow next door neighbours press and process as much as we can into apple juice, which I then pasteurise. Lasts well into next summer usually. We process apple by the wheel-barrow load… and this year have a really good crop. A few buckets get frozen as cooked apple sauce or apple butter (in jars), but with the quantities we have juice is the only option.