Know when to pick

Ripe Frostbite™ apples

To tell if an apple is ripe

• Look for a change in the background color, the part of the skin not covered with red color.
• When the background color (also called ground color) begins to change from green to a greenish yellow color, the apple is starting to ripen.
• Other than Honeygold, all other apples we recommend should have a green-turning-to-yellow background color when fully ripened.
• Pick a few apples that seem ripe and taste them to be sure they are at the ripeness you prefer.
• As apples ripen, starch in the flesh is converted to sugar. An unripe apple will be starchy and leave a sticky film on your teeth.
• A ripe apple may still be tart, but it should have developed aromatic flavors.
• You may need to pick the fruit from the same tree several times over the course of a week or two in order to get all the fruit at the right stage of maturity.

How to pick an apple

• Gently take the fruit in the palm of your hand, then lift and twist in a single motion.
• Or use one hand to hold the short, thick fruiting spur that bore the apple, and the other hand to lift and twist the fruit.
• Avoid pulling or yanking the fruit as you could pull off the spur, taking with it next year's flower buds.

Storing apples

Apples last the longest at standard refrigerator temperatures, about 33°F to 38°F, with about 85 percent humidity. Although garages, basements, and root cellars may provide adequate storage conditions, the best place to store apples at home is usually the refrigerator.

• Warmer temperatures always shorten the storage life of apples.
• Apples stored near 33°F may last as much as 10 times longer than apples stored at room temperature.
• High humidity helps reduce the shriveling of apples in storage.
• If the storage environment is low in humidity, as most refrigerators are, the fruit should be stored in a perforated plastic bag or a loosely covered container.
• Although apples are lovely displayed in a fruit bowl, such conditions will dramatically reduce their usable life.