How do you store garden apples so they last through winter?

A heavy apple harvest can feel overwhelming — there is only so much apple you can eat fresh in a week. Fortunately, certain apple varieties store remarkably well in the right conditions, allowing you to eat your own apples until well into spring. The key is understanding which varieties keep, how to handle and sort the fruit, and what environment they need to stay dormant without desiccating or rotting.

Not all apples are storage apples. Early-season varieties like Discovery and Grenadier ripen quickly and deteriorate within days of picking — they must be eaten fresh, juiced, or processed immediately. Mid-season varieties store for two to four weeks. Late-season varieties — Cox, Bramley, Egremont Russet, Laxton's Superb, and many others — can store for three to six months under good conditions.

Sorting apples before storage

Sort the harvest carefully on the day of picking. Any apple that is bruised, cracked, showing soft spots, or damaged by codling moth should be processed immediately into juice, sauce, or cider. Only perfect, undamaged apples go into long-term storage. Even a small bruise will develop into rot within days and spread ethylene gas that ripens and softens every nearby apple. The sorting step is where you protect your whole store.

Do not wash apples before storage. The natural bloom on the skin provides some protection. Washed apples deteriorate faster.

The wrapping method

Traditionally, storing apples are individually wrapped in squares of newspaper and placed in shallow trays or wooden crates. The newspaper wrapping serves two purposes: it limits ethylene gas exchange between apples, slowing the ripening process; and it absorbs any moisture from a rotting apple, potentially preventing it from spreading to neighbouring fruit before you notice and remove it. Place wrapped apples in a single layer per tray — or at most two layers if trays are deep — with the stalks pointing upward so they're easy to inspect.

Ideal storage conditions

Apples store best at 1–4°C with a humidity of 90–95%. A cool, slightly damp outbuilding, garage, cellar, or north-facing shed achieves this in most UK winters. Avoid storing where temperatures drop below freezing — frozen apples are ruined. Also avoid anywhere too warm: above 7°C, apples ripen much faster and will be deteriorated within weeks. The high humidity prevents the skin from shrivelling, which is why a fridge — which is dry — can keep apples firm but causes them to dehydrate over months. Fridges work for medium-term storage of two to four weeks.

Keep apple storage separate from potatoes, carrots, and other vegetables. The ethylene gas apples produce affects vegetables too — it causes potatoes to sprout, carrots to become bitter, and brassicas to yellow.

Checking and using stored apples

Check stored apples every one to two weeks. Remove any that have begun to soften, developed brown patches, or smell off — the smell of a rotting apple in a closed store is unmistakable. Even one rotten apple left in place will cause several of its neighbours to soften and rot faster. Brought out of storage, a good keeping apple should firm up slightly within a day at room temperature. Eat apples at room temperature for the best flavour — cold-stored apples taste flat until they warm up.