How to Conserve Apples and Pears

How long you can - and under which conditions you should - conserve apples and pears (or any other fruit or vegetable), largely depends on the quality of the food itself.

The quality is depended of the climatological conditions under which the fruit or vegetable has matured and if it has had the chance to come to full maturity …

When to Harvest?

As a first rule you should always try to harvest during a dry day and wipe the apples and pears dry - should they still be humid -.

Special Attention?

Pay special attention not to choc or staple your harvest and only conserve the healthy ones; those without insect stings or visible impacts.

Some Species Conserve better!

There are several species that are more suitable for conservation. No matter what type of apple or pear, they should always be stocked in a fresh (temperature in between 6° C and 12° C), relatively humid (60% humidity level), obscure and well aired environment.

How to Stock?

Fruits should be arranged on a bed of straw or on paper journals ... on shelves or in trays AND without touching each other …

To avoid pears from drying out, it helps to dip the tip of the stalk in liquid paraffin.

Finally, the fruits should be regularly checked for symptoms of rot and you should ELIMINATE predators such as dormice!

Why go through all this trouble? BECAUSE … the saying “one apple a day keeps the doctor away”, REALLY proves to be true!

By eating one apple or pear a day, you can halve the risk of stroke; this would be because of the ingredient quercetin.

Researchers at the University of Wageningen oberserved 20,000 adults which daily consumed white-fleshed fruits and vegetables - over a long period of time -. They found that the risk of stroke dropped by 9% for every 25 grams of apple or pear, consumed per day. An average piece of fruit weighs between 100 and 125gr. This means that the risk of stroke – by eating one of these fruits a day - , would drop between 36% and 45%.

If it really finds to be true that it is the ingredient quercetin that does the trick, you could also reduce the risk with raspberries, tomatoes, red grapes, broccoli and onions.

NOTE:

Of course you can also can apples and pears and conserve them on sirup … but of course … the apples would loose a lot of it's health benefits …