How to store apples at home

Apples So familiar that they almost do not notice. But when there are many apples, the question immediately arises - what to do with the harvest? Compotes, jams, pastila - this is familiar. That would be fresh, but in the winter! How to store apples at home? Yes, very simple.

Choosing apples for storage

Early ripening (summer) will not lie. Mid-season (autumn) stored for 2-3 months. Late-ripening (winter) should last until March. Of course, if they are properly collected and stored. Choose apples on the tab, too, need to be able to. Situation one: a neighbor, pulling up workouts and typing more air, comes up to the tree and shakes it. Fruits fall to the floor, to the neighbor on the head, scatter in all directions. In the evening, with a tied up head, he complains over the fence that, they say, apples are not stored, they immediately begin to rot. How else? They are repulsed, with bursting skin, scratched.

Picking apples must be carefully.Each fruit is carefully twisted from the branch with his hands, preferably in gloves. This will leave a whole natural wax coating. The stem must be left. Slightly immature fruit is right. In order not to shake the tree, harvesting starts from the lower branches, rising up. The harvested apples are carefully placed in containers, and not thrown over the baskets from a height.

Bookmark all the rules

Situation two. A man sits on the veranda in the evening, sips a fragrant tea with strawberry jam and observes the present picture. The notorious neighbor, injured during the day from the applefall, with the whole family drags the crop to the barn. There, groaning and hekking, they put huge baskets full of freshly harvested fruit into the cellar. Then tightly close the lid of the cellar and, satisfied, leave.

Returns only in a month. The picture repeats, only in reverse order: apples are dragged to the light from the cellar. Rather, what remains of them - an acidic mass, covered with mold. Ambra - indescribable! And again, complaints about poor preservation of the crop, and with the indescribable play on words. We, he says, washed and rubbed every apple ...

Correct actions:

1. Quarantine. Needed as air! At least two weeks apples should lie down. For example, in the barn or on the balcony. So the hidden damages and diseases come to light.
2. Fruits cannot be stored in large volumes. Lay out apples in 2-3 layers, no more. Then the upper ones do not press on the lower ones, there is free access for ventilation.
3. Wrapper. You can not just take and send an apple into the cellar. If the harvest is small, then each fruit should be wrapped with plain paper. If there are many fruits, then layers in boxes or baskets are poured with peat, moss, sunflower husks, sand, onion peels, sawdust.
4. Sorting. It is recommended. At least in size and degree of maturity. Large apples will ripen quickly, small ones by then will re-spell.
5. Ventilation. Need necessarily. All varieties of apples produce ethylene. This gas makes the fruit ripen faster. Therefore, once in 5-7 days a thorough ventilation or a good ventilation system in advance.
6. Temperature. From 0 to + 5 ° С. Strictly! Decreases - the fruit is frozen. It rises - bacteria, microbes are activated. Apples begin with an incredible speed of "bloom and smell," and far from violets.
7. Wax coating.Matt plaque on the fruit should try to damage as little as possible. This is a natural defense against pathogens. What a wash! Even a soft cloth can not be cleaned.

The tips are simple, but life is prolonged for fruits for quite a long time.

Storing apples in a trench

The third situation. The neighbor worked “for glory”, and the fruit is still full. Somewhere he heard vaguely about underground storage, he cheerfully begins to dig a hole. Something like picking up two spade bayonets, pours apples into the resulting "trench". Lays on top of those two bayonets of the earth. Thoroughly marking time at the burial (not to call it differently), satisfied leaves. Worked notably.

In winter, she wanders around the site for a long time, looking for a place of the intended exhumation. Even if he finds what he is digging there? Semi-prepared compost with a bunch of earthworms.

Proper storage of apples in the trenches is a set of activities. The depth of the pit should be at least 50-60 cm. Lay boards or sawdust in a thick layer. Fruits are packed in plastic bags of 4-5 kg. Knotted, leaving as little air as possible inside. Carefully stack packages in a trench. Top cover with spruce branches or a thick layer of peat.

They fill up the entire structure with a layer of earth, at least 20 cm thick. Ropes from strings are made long, they are brought upwards. The last layer is a thick film. This is protection from precipitation.

In winter, they come, they see their beacon (stick, box, piece of iron, rod, branch). Carefully remove the shelter and pull out the drawstring bag with beautiful fragrant apples from his garden.

Drying

The fourth situation, the last. By hook or by crook, Mount Michurin destroyed most of the harvest. But the remaining apples are still hanging here and there. Waiting for their fate with a shudder. And the neighbor did not keep himself waiting. I chopped the last fruits with a stick, collected them from the ground and poured them on a rag in the garden or right on the roof of the barn. After 2 days on the neighbor's site begin dancing with a tambourine. And the whole family runs around, desperately kicking with their feet and shouting something inarticulate.

We advise you not to go out to see this whistle dancer. It's simple:

• September
• heat
• apples on the roof
• smell
• wasps

Yes, the most common wasps. But how much!

After some time, behind the fence, everything subsides. We must wait a little more and you can go.It is recommended to sip valerian. For it is impossible to identify what comes to meet you, without fear. It will begin to complain about the dominance of terrible insects. And through the sorrowful moaning of a lisping mouth, you can finally hear how it all began. It turns out that a neighbor was drying apples!

So that the face does not resemble a pancake pancake, you need to dry the fruit correctly. Ripe apples are sorted, washed. Cut out wormholes, injuries and sore spots. Cut into slices or circles, removing the core. Laid out on the oven pan or drier tray. And the process begins. At a temperature of 55-70 ° C, the apples dry out in 7-10 hours.

Such fruit chips are stored for about 7 months in fabric or paper bags. Glass, metal or plastic is not suitable as a container. Dried apples quickly become musty, change their smell, grow moldy.

Useful tips

1. Fruit bookmark is recommended to check regularly. The slightest sign of spoilage and apple clean, so as not to infect the rest.
2. In the absence of a cellar, the fruit can be stored on a warmed balcony or in a cool pantry.The conditions of harvesting and preparation remain identical.
3. Before storage, boxes and baskets are disinfected with a weak solution of potassium permanganate or chlorine. The cellar is treated with a solution of lime with copper sulphate or sulfur-smoke bomb.
4. Despite enhanced ventilation, the humidity level in the room or storage should not fall below 80%. Maintain the norm by spraying water onto walls or floors. Or put open filled containers.
5. It is not recommended to store apples at home, if they are bought in the store. Industrial processing almost completely kills the taste and aroma of fruit. What is the point of saving them, if you then have to eat cotton wool, smelling like synthetics?
6. Before harvesting, try to water the trees to a minimum. Or refuse at all. So apples do not feed on excess moisture.
7. Their fruits are sometimes outwardly far from ideal, but they have much more useful and nutrients than in purchased ones.
8. If too long a fruit stem interferes with placing the fruit for storage, then it can be shortened. The main thing is to leave at least a small tail.
9. It happens that a person does not have a balcony or cellar.Then the apples are stored at the front door or under the bed. It is possible in the refrigerator. True, then the period is reduced to 2 months. Not much, but better than nothing.
10. In order not to wrestle with which box to take fruits for food first, you can simply sign them. For example, the name of the variety and the date of the bookmark.

Straw is a bad bedding material, but it is a good flavor. Apples from under her very few people like the smell.

Do not become like the neighbor's "gardener." A little effort and delicious fragrant apples of their own production will be on the table all winter.

Video: how to store apples for the winter