Saturday, January 19, 2019

Apple Storage





As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.

The best apples come in two forms and most people will never partake of them due to refrigeration and other poor ideas of storage.

The first is hanging on a tree, where the tree regulates with atmospheric humidity the correct water and sugar content of the apple. The best apples I have ever eaten were Haralsons off my beloved Uncle's tree that my Grandpa planted. We used to stop in mid October after  goose hunting  around noon on bright sunny days, after frosty nights, and those apples were explosively crisp, dripping juice and ice chilled. This is what apples are supposed to be like, and it all has to do with God's nature's storage.

The second is again my beloved Uncle in what I thought was a stupid place to store apples. On my Grampas there was a porch that was open that he always sat on. It seemed the sparrows had more things going on there in nesting than in us sitting there drinking porch cool beer.
Grampa always had basement cool, which was porch cool at about 90 degrees. One gulp from a bottle and you got a mouth full of foam and the rest was not any better.

Uncle though had a flat deep aluminum bucket that he would hang from the rafter there loaded up with apples that he bought, and those were fabulous apples. The natural frosty nights, and warm days, with natural humidity always had those apples wonderfully crisp and cold.

This is not something which is going to work all winter, as Detroit you will end up with apple rocks in January, but if you keep track of your apples, in making sure that you don't get below 25 degrees at night and above freezing in the day time, you should be able to keep your apples for quite a long time in the autumn.
Places like Kansas City it is known to be nice to Christmas, so depending where you are at, you can store apples outside for some time.

If you do not have a porch like we do not yet, I built a work bench in TL's shed this summer and that is where I put our apples. Put them on the floor and they do not do as good, but on that shelf which is wood, and it is open to the world and not closed up, the apples there are now two weeks going actually better than when we got them out of the store.
I am especially pleased in this as some local dink grew some Minnesota apples and they are going cheap at 99 cents a pound. We picked up Honeygold and are saving the seeds, but these yellow apples are simply my favorite when they are in prime form. TL knows now why I was talking about them as they are large yellow apples, with a red blush and some freckles.
If I had put these into the fridge, the would have gotten mealy, and rotten like the other apples we picked up in a few weeks, and been a chore to eat. Put them outside and God keeps them in prime condition for as long as the non below freezing daytime temperatures stay away.


We have tried all  the whiz bang methods, like a root cellar. Lord God, the old man, bought bushels of apples one year when I was really young and my brother, Ma and I wrapped them up, buckets of them in newspaper.
My brother remembered around Christmas we had apples and suggested we get them, so we did. Our delight was horror when I took a bite into a pretty red apple, which was a combination flavor of newspaper, news ink and musty cellar. I have no idea where those apples went, but it was probably the hogs or the trees.

Yes for long storage in winter cold, a cellar is prime, or a fridge, but you will end up having super market tasting fruit which will disappoint. The method my Uncle had at least kept me in apples I looked forward to, instead of dreaded.

With that, that is your million dollar apple lesson if you are in half ways decent climate. Apples belong in nature with God and they breathe the best there out of direct sunlight and out of freezing.

Nuff Said









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