North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Tom Olenio <tolenio@sentex.net>]

Hi All,

When we bought our house in an agricultural area of Ontario, our house came with a cold room in the basement.  It is perfect for cold storage all winter.

It is about 5' wide and 13' long, and is vented to the cold air outside at each end of the room.  The door to cold room is insulated, and the wall is also well insulated keeping the winter cold only in the cold room.

The temperature is very stable and hovers around 38-40F all winter.

I have a bushel of Idareds and a bushel of Red Delicious that have been in there since picking and are doing real well.  We keep all our preserves in this cold room as well.

Best of all it keeps apples (anything) cold all winter for FREE.

Regards,
Tom

Mark Garrison wrote:

A little trick I learned this year for storing apples for personal use:  I've always used an old refrigerator to keep eating apples into the winter, putting them in heavy plastic bags (big ones 13x18" used by our blueberry customers) but by this time of year they were only so-so;  this year before putting on ties I sucked the air out of the bags.  Still eating Jonathan, crisp, no brown spot.  Also Jonagold, Spigold.  Even Shensu, though mellow, are still juicy. Mark, RI, zone 6

--
Thomas Olenio
Ontario, Canada
Hardiness Zone 6a