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The best way to preserve apples

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The best way to preserve apples

Apple 'Appletini' from T&M

You are able to do so much with a bumper crop of apples
Picture: Apple ‘Appletini’ from Thompson & Morgan

In case you’re questioning what to do with a bumper haul of apples, by no means concern, there are many methods to preserve your crop. We turned to a few of our favorite bloggers for recommendation, asking them how they take care of an apple glut. 

Listed here are a number of the best methods to retailer and preserve this most conventional of British fruits, together with high suggestions from those that’ve been there, accomplished that and have the chutney to present for it! Impressed to develop a couple of extra varieties? Check out our glorious choice of apple trees right here.

  1. How to retailer entire apples
  2. How to dry and dehydrate apples
  3. How to freeze apples
  4. How to make apple chutney
  5. How to make apple jams and jellies
  6. How to make apple leather-based
  7. How to make apple cider

1. How to retailer entire apples

The first approach for preserving apples requires nearly no effort in any respect. In actual fact, all you want is a cool, dry shelf within the storage, attic, or utility room. As Kev at An English Homestead says:

“The easiest way to preserve the harvest is in its natural form – I’ve built lots of apple racks and if you pick the right variety then you can be eating them well into next year – I ate my last stored apple on June the 1st this year!”

Varieties like ‘Golden Delicious’, ‘Gala’, ‘Fuji’, and ‘Red Delicious’ retailer nicely over the winter months, however a lot depends upon good preparation too. As Kev says, “careful picking, storage and selection of variety is all that is needed. You need to be vigilant with checking them and remove any that go bad.”

To scale back the possibilities of your apples going unhealthy, place them in order that they’re not touching, or do as Sam aka The Hairy Horticulturist does, and “wrap apples in paper and store somewhere cold…”

2. How to dry and dehydrate apples

Dried apple fruit snacks

Dried apples make glorious winter snacks
Picture: An English Homestead

Dried apples are a scrumptious snack you may take pleasure in anytime you want a bit of further gas between meals, they usually’re additionally an ideal baking ingredient, both of their dried kind or rehydrated.

To dry apples, merely wash your harvest earlier than reducing it into skinny slices and drying in an oven on its lowest temperature setting, or in a dehydrator. In case you’d like to stop the fruit from oxidising – turning brown – first soak the slices in brine (2oz salt to 1 gallon of water) for a couple of minutes earlier than eradicating with a slotted spoon and patting dry with kitchen paper.

Drying instances range in accordance to the temperature setting of your oven, however in any case, it’s simple to inform when your apples are prepared – merely choose a couple of slices at random and provides them a squeeze. Dried apples ought to have a rubbery texture and can spring again into form when squished.

Retailer your dried apples in cardboard bins lined with brown paper, or in sealed, sterilised jars. Carla Whitehouse of @flowers_and_veg_at_no_57 says, “I sterilise my jars by washing them. I place the jar in the oven on 140c for 10 minutes and pour boiling water over the lids.”

3. How to freeze apples

One of many best methods to take care of surplus apples is to freeze them. Do keep in mind, nonetheless, that whenever you thaw the fruit, the water within the cells expands, breaking the membrane and softening the fruit. Because of this, it’s an ideal concept to course of your apples earlier than you set them within the freezer – it saves on area too.

Mandy of MandyCanUDigIt has a ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’ tree in her backyard. Planted from a pip when she was a toddler, it now produces a crop of apples, which though plentiful, tends to be badly affected with scab. She says, “it’s a real chore to core, peel and chop such apples and life’s too short.” Her answer? Cook dinner the apples with lemon juice, enable them to cool, after which work the fruit by a colander to take away the skins, pips and bits of core – that’s proper, you don’t want to peel and core your apples for this recipe! Mandy spoons her compote into ziplock baggage earlier than labelling and freezing. What an ideal concept!

4. How to make apple chutney

Closeup of apple chutney

Katie’s marvellous apple chutney
Picture: The Marmalade Teapot

Katie at The Marmalade Teapot is an apple chutney fan. She says: “My top tip is to jazz up a simple cheese toastie with a good layering of this apple chutney. Warmed through, crispy on the outside & oozing in the middle, it’s my absolute guilty pleasure.”

Chutney-making needn’t be sophisticated, says Choclette from Tin & Thyme – “it’s just a case of cooking everything down until the mixture is thick.” Her favorite is her spiced apple chutney. “Sometimes,” she says, “I’ll make two or even three batches as it makes splendid gifts for chutney loving friends and family.”

Richard at The Veg Grower Podcast can be a fan of apple chutney. Together with sultanas, muscovado sugar, mustard seeds, ginger and cinnamon, he makes use of a slow cooker to make his chutney – an energy-saving technique that couldn’t be simpler.

5. How to make apple jams and jellies

Basket of apple and plum jam

Carla makes jars of apple and plum jam along with her windfalls
Picture: @flowers_and_veg_at_no_57

Apples are additionally scrumptious when processed right into a candy or savoury jam or jelly. Michelle at Veg Plotting makes use of her surplus dessert apples to make a scrumptious sweet apple jelly. A quite simple recipe, it’s really easy to make – she enjoys hers with bread and peanut butter. After decanting the jelly into warmed, sterilised jars, retailer in a cool, darkish cabinet. The jelly is prepared to eat straight away, but additionally retains very nicely.

Over at @flowers_and_veg_at_no_57, Carla has a manhattan tree at residence and a plum tree at work, so she combines the fruits to make a scrumptious jam. Carla admits that she loves to be surrounded by mason jars crammed with do-it-yourself preserves: “It’s so lovely to look at them – it gives a sense of security especially in these uncertain times.” Discover her recipe for plum and apple jam on her Instagram web page.

6. How to make apple leather-based

In search of a snack answer youngsters will love? Sarah at Craft Invaders says, “yummy, healthy, super-easy and cheap to make – fruit leather is the ultimate grab and go snack.” She additionally says that “making fruit leathers at home is really easy, fun to do with the kids, and you get to control exactly what goes into them!”

If making fruit leather-based feels like one thing you’d like to attempt, why not have a go at Sarah’s pretty plum and apple fruit leather recipe? Containing simply apples, plums and lemon juice, the total technique is over at her website.

7. How to make apple cider

You’ve peeled, simmered, mashed, pressed, pulped, and processed however nonetheless you have got left-over apples? Now’s the time to make cider. A gloriously messy course of, the youngsters will love serving to – and might be part of within the ingesting too as a result of, relying in your selection of apples, you don’t have to wait on your juice to flip alcoholic earlier than ingesting it.

In case you’d like to have a go at making your individual cider – a rustic custom as outdated because the hills, we extremely suggest having a look at Kev at An English Homestead’s series of posts about cider making. It seems to be like a enjoyable way to take pleasure in some contemporary air and train earlier than sitting down for a tipple from final 12 months’s brew.

We hope you’ve loved our information to preserving apples. Getting probably the most out of your harvests is a good way to take pleasure in tasty snacks all 12 months spherical, whereas reducing waste and saving you cash. Go to our fruit tree hub page for extra info and recommendation.