WHAT’S IN Season APPLES
Known for keeping the doctor away and even sending beauties to sleep, apples are a healthy everyday snack on their own – as well as a fabulously versatile cooking ingredient.
CHOOSING
Although the harvest starts as summer turns to autumn and ends around mid-winter, today we find good ‘fresh’ apples at the greengrocer year round. The apple industry meets this demand by growing varieties that will keep well in cool storage, or more correctly in controlled-atmosphere storage, which puts the fruit ‘to sleep’, so that, in theory, it emerges as fresh as it went in - although some apples emerge better than others.
Many apples are sprayed with a high-gloss wax before going on sale. This is done simply to make them look good. The wax, the same as that used to coat jellybeans, is quite harmless to eat. In an unwaxed apple, a softly gleaming skin is a sign of good condition.
STORING
Don’t keep apples in the fruit bowl: they will hold their texture and flavour much better if kept in the refrigerator crisper. Don’t wash them until you are ready to use them. To store a large quantity of apples, place them, not touching each other, in a cool, dark place where plenty of air can circulate, for example on slatted shelves or in pull-out wire baskets.
