Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Getting up our apple supply for winter

Every fall I buy about 175 lbs of apples to get us through the winter for fresh eating, apple pies (I personally don't like apple pie but make it for Husband because he loves them) , fried apples, and applesauce.  I buy directly from the growers and this year found a great deal on Brayburns and Fuji's at 30 cents a pound.  Way cheaper than the dollar or more I'm paying at the store.  Both the apple varieties I chose are excellent keepers so as long as I keep them cool they should last well into next spring.

As to why I do it?  First is because we love apples and my five apple trees haven't started bearing yet. And well hey after all I live in Washington state right?  The apple state. Buying in bulk is cheaper than at the store, might as well take advantage of it.  There are in fact many orchards here in Washington of different fruits, so in season you can find fabulous deals on cherries, peaches, plums, and apricots as well as apples.  It is still however cheaper to grow your own which is why I currently have my five apple trees, two peach trees and a passel of assorted berry's growing.  My goal has always been to grow all my own fruit and veggies, but it is a goal that takes time.

The place I store them is in the unheated back enclosed porch which keeps them extremely cold without freezing them.  This worked out well last year even when temperatures dipped down below zero.

Having a cold room is definitely helpful when it comes to storing produce from the garden that requires cold and slightly humid conditions to keep.  People mostly would use a root cellar or unheated basement.  I have the basement but it stays just a little to warm and way to dry to properly store apples.  It is much more suited to storing onions.  Someday I'm going to build nice looking wooden boxes for storing my apples, carrots, and other root crops in the back porch.  For now though they are simply stored in cardboard boxes with a layer of newspaper on top to keep off dust and keep them a little more humid.  Worked fine last year.

1 comment:

  1. I also live in WA, Bremerton area, and wish we had more local growers so I could purchase my apples so cheaply! When they get down to 78cents a pound I usually buy quite a bit and store them in our daylight basement (coldest area of the house). How nice to be able to grow your own fruit. We live on a small lot in town so no apple trees for us yet. :)

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