Harvesting and storing fruit, step by step
Interactive lesson: recognise ripeness, pick without bruising, sort into four crates and cool the fruit for the cellar.
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The whole lesson as text
1. When fruit is ripe
An apple picked a week too early is sour; a week too late, it is mealy.
- Two kinds of ripeness — Cherries, plums and peaches are picked almost when they are ready to eat. Pick winter apples and pears earlier, while still hard, so they ripen in store.
- Lift and twist — Cup the fruit in your palm, lift it upwards and twist gently. A ripe apple comes away on its own, with its stalk.
- Colour and pips — The ground colour under the blush turns from green to yellowish. The pips are brown.
- The first fruit drop — When the first sound fruit drop, picking time is close. Pick winter varieties for storing at the start of that window.
Why: There are two kinds of ripeness. Picking ripeness is when the fruit can come off the tree; eating ripeness is when it is best to eat. With winter apples and pears, anything from a few weeks to a few months passes between them.
- The same variety ripens 1–2 weeks earlier in a warm year and on a south-facing slope.
- A pear left on the tree until fully ripe rots from the inside. Pick summer pears a week before they are fully ripe.
2. The starch test
With winter varieties, iodine is the easiest way to hit the right picking day.
- Three apples — Pick 3 apples from different sides of the tree.
- Cut across — Cut them in half across, through the pips.
- Iodine and wait — Brush the cut surface with diluted iodine and wait 1–2 minutes.
- Read the cut — Almost all dark blue: too early. Pale around the core, blue towards the skin: pick for long storage. Throw tested apples away, don't eat them.
Why: An unripe apple is full of starch, which turns into sugar as it ripens. Iodine stains starch dark blue, so the cut surface shows how ripe the apple is.
- Solution: tincture of iodine from a pharmacy diluted with water roughly 1:10. Keep it out of children's reach.
- Old growers say a winter apple is picked "while it is still too early to eat".
3. Picking without bruising · Locked
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4. Ladders, loads and shaking · Locked
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5. Four crates · Locked
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6. Cooling and storing · Locked
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