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Apples and Pears for storage
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Message 1.Â
Posted by calculad (U3607616) on Saturday, 27th August 2011
Is there a correct time to pick to store apples and pears. I am guessing that it is before they are fully ripe.
Also any tips on how to store would be very welcome.
Thanks.
K -
Message 2
Posted by triciaB2 (U4001488) on Saturday, 27th August 2011
Hi.
I don't have apples, but do have pears and I keep a careful eye on them, and when the first one falls off naturally in about the middle of September I pick the whole lot in straight away. I have been storing them wrapped in kitchen roll in the salad drawers at the bottom of the fridge and bringing them out a few at a time to get ready for eating, but I have recently learned that they should probably just be kept in a cool place, like the garden shed. Certainly they do lose a bit of flavour eventually after being stored in the fridge and I have only a small crop - about 60 pears at the most, so I can do this. When I had a garden with a big pear tree I had to give away a lot of them and at the time I bottled as many as I could. This is very time consuming though! -
Message 3
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Sunday, 28th August 2011
the question and the answer are valuable to me, which is what this board is about. Little tips having a potential big effect. thanks triciaB.
My own problem is that I could for the sake of a £60 mini-cooler in the kitchen, put the fridge freezer in the garage and fill it with about the same number of pears that you mention.
The freezer is very useful for freezing local funghi, and cooking from frozen, which is actually better than drying them.
Any way I think I could, with one or two extra fridge shelves get about 60 pears in there. The cost would be about 45p per week for the electricity. ( 1/2 cu ft.fridge area).
Would they have to be kept individually or would they stack in there ok, picked early as you mention, when the first one is blown down? Would they suffer if the fridge were bursting at the seams with them?!
45p per week until March or April is not that cheap, say 8 months/30 weeks == say £14 for the whole of the stored time.
What could you buy comice/conference pears for, in the shops, in March?
£4 per kilo?
I might be able to store 25lbs of pears for that time, and have them
constantly available. === £40 (25lb at £4 per kilo)
Less the extra cost of the fridge £40-£14== profit say£25.
In that case the saving might amount to three times the cost of the electricity, and the pears are free!! -
Message 4
Posted by BaraGwenith (U14257539) on Sunday, 28th August 2011
Your first step is to choose your varieties. Like apples, some are for storage, some definitely are not. It would be a shame if they went 'sleepy' on you, but looked quite normal on the outside.
Just keeping them in a domestic fridge will not be enough. Commercially they are kept very particularly in gas chambers, I should imagine. -
Message 5
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Sunday, 28th August 2011
I did not think of suggesting you consult Bara-G!
Don't you think lowering the temperature of the fruit is sufficient to "keep2 it until say March?
My Bramleys kept until late march just in a box last winter, it was so cold, but not freezing in there. (not in a fridge).
In fact this fridge is 12cu ft (3x2x2) which is not much, but enough for about 60 pears. Don't you think, a la Victorian gardens, that fridge might be too much, Bara? -
Message 6
Posted by triciaB2 (U4001488) on Sunday, 28th August 2011
I don't think your pears would last until March, so don't worry too much about the cost of electricity! Mine keep for about 6 to 8 weeks, being brought out a couple every few days to warm up and eat. They would not keep for longer than that - I don't know what variety mine are, but they are quite large and very tasty. They don't suffer from being wrapped and stored tightly packed so long as they are not damaged when put into storage. On the matter of cost of electricity, it's probably better in my view to be eating your own fruit even if you can buy similar from the shops or market for the same cost.
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Message 7
Posted by BaraGwenith (U14257539) on Monday, 29th August 2011
Papa Nopsis, apples will keep if they are the right variety, but pears are not the same.
I would be very interested to know if it works, but I would hate a good crop of pears to go to waste, because it didn't.
Keep us posted. -
Message 8
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Monday, 29th August 2011
A lot gets wasted by not storing them so I might just as well.
Pack them in kitchen paper and see how long.
The bad ones have to be got out, otherwise they infect the others. -
Message 9
Posted by netherfield (U3897706) on Monday, 29th August 2011
It's not a good idea to put a fridge freezer in the garage,unless specifically designed for there.On another forum ther is quite a long thread about people having problems.
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Message 10
Posted by Papa Nopsis (U14479902) on Tuesday, 30th August 2011
It should be ok since the fridge will keep my cider warm, and fermenting!
Fridge has a net output of heat, however much it does its job of cooling inside. -
Message 11
Posted by horththit (U13862695) on Friday, 2nd September 2011
In the old days, they used to wrap apples up individually in newspaper and keep them in drawers in an airy unheated outhouse, but they had to be checked weekly and any that were going bad were immediately taken out. You could use them if the badness hasn't spread too much, just cut it out. Don't think pears handle the same tho. You could preserve them in kilner jars.
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