Getting the picking moment right

An apple picked a week too early will be shrivelled and tasteless by January. One left a week too long will already be soft and mealy before it ever reaches the shelf. For fruit that has to carry you through to spring, timing is everything.

The old test is still the best one. Cup the apple in your palm, lift it slightly and twist. If it comes away cleanly with the stalk still attached, it is ready. If it needs a firm tug, leave it another few days. Cut one open and look at the pips: brown means ripe, pale green or white means it is not. Windfalls are another useful signal — once the tree starts dropping sound fruit, the crop is ready to come in.

Pick on a dry day, mid-morning once the dew has lifted. Never gather wet fruit, as damp skin encourages mould in store. Work from the outside of the tree inwards and from the bottom upwards, so you are not knocking fruit off the branches above as you go.

Handle every apple as though it were an egg

A bruise is not just a blemish. It is a break in the skin's defences and the place where rot will begin, often weeks later, in the middle of a box of otherwise sound fruit. Everything you do between tree and shelf should be aimed at avoiding knocks.

• Use both hands — one to hold the apple, one to twist it free. Never pull with the fingertips.
• Place fruit into the basket rather than dropping it, and never tip a full basket into a box.
• Keep the stalk on. A snagged stalk tears a hole in a neighbouring apple.
• Line buckets, trugs and boxes with newspaper, sacking or bubble wrap, and carry them on a flat surface rather than swinging them.
• Empty each container by hand, laying the apples down one at a time.

Take the fruit indoors as soon as it is picked. A couple of hours in a warm wheelbarrow will shorten its storage life noticeably.

Sort ruthlessly — only perfect specimens go into store

The old saying about one rotten apple spoiling the barrel is literally true. A single damaged fruit releases ethylene, which speeds the ripening, and later the decay, of everything around it. Sorting is not a chore to be rushed at the end of a long afternoon.

• Reject anything cut, bruised, pecked by birds, holed by codling moth, or marked with brown rot or bitter pit.
• Reject apples that have already gone soft or greasy to the touch.
• Do not wash the fruit. Washing removes the natural bloom that protects the skin. Wipe dirty apples with a dry cloth instead.
• Keep varieties separate. A Bramley will keep for months, a Cox will not, and mixing them wastes the difference.
• Set the imperfect ones aside — stew them, juice them or turn them into chutney in the next few days.

Finding the right spot

Apples want to be cool, dark and humid, but never frozen. A temperature of roughly 3–7°C is ideal, which in most British homes means an unheated garage, a stone-floored cellar, a north-facing pantry or an insulated garden store. The kitchen is the worst place in the house, being warm, bright and full of cooking smells that apples will happily absorb.

Aim for around 85–90 per cent humidity. A shallow tray of water on the floor, or a damp — not wet — layer of sand beneath the shelves, will usually do it. Mice are a real hazard in sheds and cellars, so check for gaps and keep boxes off the floor on slatted shelves or pallets.

Never store apples alongside potatoes, onions, carrots or strong-smelling produce. Potatoes give off moisture and ethylene, and apples will take on the flavour of anything pungent nearby.

Trays, boxes and wrapping

If you have space, a single layer on slatted wooden shelves is the simplest method and allows the air to move freely around each fruit. Otherwise, use shallow wooden or cardboard boxes lined with newspaper, with the apples arranged so they do not touch their neighbours.

Individual wrapping is slower but very effective. Newspaper, tissue or a paper wrap lets the fruit breathe while cushioning it; plastic is best avoided unless you are using perforated polythene bags specifically to hold humidity for varieties that shrivel easily, in which case check them far more often. Stack boxes no more than three deep, and label each one with the variety and the date it went in.

Late-keeping varieties are the ones worth this effort. Bramley, Ashmead's Kernel, Annie Elizabeth, Newton Wonder and Lane's Prince Albert will often carry on into February and beyond, while Cox's Orange Pippin and Egremont Russet are best eaten by Christmas.

Checking — the fortnightly ritual

From the moment the first box is filled, set aside a few minutes every week or fortnight to go through the store. Lift each apple gently and look for soft brown patches, shrivelling or a faint musty smell. Remove anything suspect immediately — not to the compost heap at the back of the garden, but straight into a bag and out of the building, as the spores travel.

Handle the fruit as little as possible on these inspections. Every touch is a small risk, and rings or fingernails can puncture a skin without you noticing.

As spring approaches and the store begins to warm, eat the remaining fruit quickly or cook it down into sauce and juice. There is a particular pleasure in a February crumble made from your own apples, and it is the reward for all that careful handling back in October.