Your Harvested Garden Apples Can Last All Winter If You Prepare Them Right

If you enjoy a fall apple, you probably would like them even better during the winter, when it's harder to find good fruit. Most folks aren't aware that you can keep fall apples fresh well into the colder months, so they don't even attempt it. Once you figure out the tricks to long-term storage, though, you'll be able to enjoy apple cobbler, apple pie cinnamon rolls, and apple coffee cake while you watch Christmas movies and the snow falling outside your window. Whenever you feel like you need some fruit, you can just reach into the fridge. Keeping your apples fresh isn't overly complicated either — there are just a few rules you need to follow for them to last.

Part of proper storage depends on picking the right apples to keep over the winter. Varieties like Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, and Fuji store particularly well, while early-season varieties like Mollies Delicious or McIntosh do not keep for long. The easiest fresh storage method is in the fridge, and you don't have to stay terribly sensitive to the differences between the fresh and crisper drawers if you want to maintain optimal conditions. While the crisper drawer is preferable because it's specifically designed for fruit, both drawers can help trap moisture, which keeps your produce fresh for longer. But if you don't preserve your apples correctly, they could soften and rot before you have time to eat them.

The first step starts in the fall. Find an orchard near you (if you aren't already growing and caring for your own apple trees), and pick a couple bags of apples. Only choose pristine, unblemished apples without bruises, nicks, soft spots, or other damage. Just make sure not to pick more than what you can fit in your fridge. Once you've collected a couple bags of apples, pick through them to determine the freshest ones. Since the goal is long-term storage, you don't want one bad apple to ruin the bunch, as the saying goes. Then, you should clear out one or both of your fridge drawers.

Modern refrigerators tend to pull the moisture out of things, because they are frost-free. If you want to keep those apples fresh and delicious, you'll need to help them retain their moisture. There are a few ways to do this. You could put them in Ziploc bags with a small air gap and place them in a fresh drawer. Or, use paper towels in the produce drawer, wrapping your apples in them to maintain the humidity around them. By wrapping apples individually, you will also prevent them from touching each other, which will help keep any bad apples from spoiling their neighbors. As long as your fridge's temperature is between 32 and 39 degrees Fahrenheit (don't let your apples freeze), many cultivars are able to last at least six months. Partially ripe apples will last longer than fully ripened fruit. If you don't have a lot of space in your fridge, you can put any remaining apples in Ziploc bags or individually wrap them in paper and leave them in a cool and dark cellar, basement, or pantry.