Harvesting apples and pears
Egal ob grün, gelb oder rot – Äpfel sind lecker, gesund und stecken voller Ernährungskraft. Auch die Birne ist ein wichtiger Vitamin- und Nährstofflieferant für unseren Körper, welche vor allem wegen ihres süßen Geschmacks bei Groß und Klein beliebt ist. Jetzt, im Spätsommer, ist Hochsaison für die beiden Kernobstfrüchte, denn in Massen hängen die reifen Früchte zurzeit am Baum und warten geradezu darauf, endlich geerntet zu werden. Damit Du die saftig leckeren Früchte möglichst lange genießen kannst, ist die Wahl des richtigen Erntezeitpunkts und die richtige Lagerung entscheidend.
Is the fruit ripe?
According to old gardening lore, the colour of the core of the fruit can be used to determine its ripeness. Apples and pears should therefore be picked when their cores have turned a darker shade. The best way to check the colour of the cores is to cut open a fruit that has fallen on the ground. This tip is particularly useful for pears. You should not always count on this method for apples though because with late-ripening varieties or at higher altitudes the apples may not always be completely ripe even if their core has turned brown. And even later varieties only go from being ripe enough to pick, to ripe enough to truly savour after weeks in storage. To be sure that your apples and pears are ripe enough to harvest, the "tip test" helps for varieties with a long enough stem. This involves tipping the fruit on its stem by up to 90 degrees, or rather onto its side. If the fruit is ripe enough to pick then it will simply fall off the branch. This means that the fruit is ready for harvesting. If the stem remains attached to the tree and the fruit falls off instead, you should wait a little longer before harvesting.
Storing food the right way
Early varieties cannot be stored for long so it is best to go for dedicated late varieties and storable varieties that mean you are guaranteed to still be eating fresh, home-grown fruit well into the New Year. Check your fruit thoroughly before storage. Only the best quality fruits without any bruises or rotten sections are suitable for storage over winter. Ideally, the stem should still be attached to the fruit, too. We recommend that you check your stored fruit on a weekly basis at first so that damaged fruit can be removed immediately and used in the kitchen instead. Never store apples together with other fruits or potatoes because they emit the natural gas ethylene, which accelerates the ripening process in other fruits. Apples and pears are best stored somewhere cool and damp. Dark rooms are well suited to this, if possible in temperatures of between 1 and 3°C. A cool, dark cellar, a frost-protected garage or a cool attic are particularly good places to store fruit.
