Gardening Tips: Apple Season

Fall is the time to pick apples, and preserve nature's bounty. Here are a few tips to extend the fruitful fall season. I'm Lisa Hilgenberg from Chicago Botanic Garden with gardening tips for the week.

Whether picking homegrown apples or harvesting from a local orchard, it's best to let apples ripen on the tree rather than picking before they are ready and then trying to coax them to ripen on the kitchen counter.

Look for apples whose color has mellowed from a green tinged background to a yellow undertone. Harvest by holding apples in the palm of your hand, lifting upwards and gently twisting the apple releasing it from the branch, leaving a small portion of stem on the apple.

If the fruit comes off the spur easily then it is ready to pick. Slice the apple in half noticing if the seeds have turned from white to brown, another indicator of ripeness.

Whether picking off the tree or picking apples up at a market, take care not to puncture or bruise the fruit. Store Granny Smith or Fuji apples at 30°- 40°F in covered, but ventilated, containers. Proper storage in an unheated basement or garage could mean apples on your table through the fall.

By thinking outside the pie you can preserve apples with recipes for lightly sweet, healthy and appealing ways to use apples. Savor fall's harvest long into the winter by making applesauce, chutney and crabapple pickles.

Or share the sweetness of fall's bounty with a neighbor, a favorite teacher, coworker or coach by baking an apple crisp or creating a caramel apple. Apples can be peeled, sliced and dipped in lemon juice, then bag and freeze.

Consider planting apple trees in the home garden- easily done in the late fall when plants are dormant. You'll need at least two varieties that flower at the same time and we can thank bees for ensuring proper pollination.

Choose disease resistant varieties like Liberty, William's Pride, Prima, Jonafree.

Lisa Hilgenberg is the Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable Garden Horticulturist. She teaches classes for the Joseph Regenstein, Jr. School of the Chicago Botanic Garden and mentors interns from the Garden's urban agriculture programs in the summer. Lisa draws on a rich family farming tradition, having spent many summers on her grandparents' farms in Iowa and Minnesota. You can follow Lisa on Twitter @hilgenberg8.