When buying fruit, you’ll choose the most ripe and juicy looking – but in a few days, it can seriously deteriorate, meaning more often than not it ends up getting chucked in the bin. But that doesn’t have to be the case
When you’re shopping for fruit, it’s natural to pick the ripest and juiciest looking ones. However, these can quickly deteriorate within a few days, often resulting in them being thrown away. Apples, if not stored correctly, can become prematurely rotten. Interestingly, people in the 1700s devised an excellent method to keep them fresh – a trick that we’ve largely overlooked.
The woman who shared this tip even claimed that apples could remain juicy and crisp for several months. She revealed her findings on her YouTube channel, ‘The Acadian Garden and Apothecary’. “A wonderful way to keep healthy foods without canning, dehydrating or refrigeration”, reads the video description.
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To preserve your apple, it must be a “perfect” apple – no bruises, no cuts, no insect damage, and the stem must also be intact. The apple should be packed in a dry, aerated material such as sawdust, grains, heat-dried sand, or newspaper, and then stored in a cool, dry place, away from potatoes, as they emit a gas which will cause the apples to ripen.
This method is most effective with fresh apples picked from an orchard, rather than store-bought ones, which may have been sprayed with chemicals that affect the ripening process. Storing apples individually wrapped in newspaper can help prevent one rotten apple from spoiling the rest.
This is because if an apple goes bad, the ethylene it releases will be contained and won’t affect the other apples – meaning your apples could last much longer than expected.
One viewer confessed they’d been storing their produce incorrectly after watching the video, writing: “I’ve been storing my produce all wrong.
“Not so much for longevity, but just in general. Thank you for the little tips on how to care for apples- I may not want mine to last five months, but at least longer than a week will suffice.”
