storing apples
How can we store our apple harvest?Good apple storage needs cool temperatures and high humidity. A blanket of carbon dioxide also holds back decay.
High humidity is needed to prevent the fruit from becomming wizzened and losing its moisture into the air.
In the days of our glorious naval past, each ship sailed with barrels of apples. Good storers were needed and barrels presumably had tight fitting lids.
Iron age farmers have been found to use the preserving power of a blanket of carbon dioxide by digging pits to store their corn. As the corn respired, it converted available oxygen into CO2 that sat heavily across the corn, preserving it.
We have found a supply of used polystyrene boxes with lids and so have placed our Red Falstaff apples into one of these boxes in the cool garage.I hope that this modern storage method replicates the succeses of the past. Red Falstaff is an abundant cropper and stored last year until early spring.
In the days of our glorious naval past, each ship sailed with barrels of apples. Good storers were needed and barrels presumably had tight fitting lids.
Iron age farmers have been found to use the preserving power of a blanket of carbon dioxide by digging pits to store their corn. As the corn respired, it converted available oxygen into CO2 that sat heavily across the corn, preserving it.
We have found a supply of used polystyrene boxes with lids and so have placed our Red Falstaff apples into one of these boxes in the cool garage.I hope that this modern storage method replicates the succeses of the past. Red Falstaff is an abundant cropper and stored last year until early spring.
This is what they looked like today - we'll watch how they keep.