Apples, Apples, Everywhere: Tips for Dealing with an Abundance of Apples

If this is the year your apple trees decide to really produce, what do you do after making enough pies and applesauce to overwhelm your usual dinner menus and fill up your freezer? Storage in a root cellar is one option. An unheated basement can serve the purpose but digging a root cellar by the back door is one possible weekend project. You'll probably need room for several bins or baskets and should arrange for ventilation and a good cover to keep critters out.

Making juice or cider could require some serious investment in equipment, but small batches can be made with ordinary kitchenware. Of course, you'll still have the storage problem, as juice (which is thin and relatively clear) or cider (which is thicker and murkier) do not last very long even when refrigerated. A couple of weeks is the most you can expect before the apple liquids turn to vinegar, or become carbonated, or acquire a distinct alcoholic nose. In that state they may still be usable in cooking, in stews or soups for example, but may not be good or even very healthy for drinking. Hard cider is a distilled product which isn't easy to make or even recommended for home brewing. The old-time colonial method, leaving a barrel of cider outside in the snow over the winter and drawing off the liquid (alcohol doesn't freeze), is not really practical in this day and age.

After you have eaten, stored, and given away as much of your apple crop as you can, your next step is to research recipes. Apples are a great complement to many other foods, from salads to entrees to desserts. Apple jelly and apple chutney can be stored in jars for a long time. Apple breads and cakes can be frozen like pies, but they use up fewer apples than do pies. Drying apple slices is one interesting solution, and you can use your oven instead of purchasing dehydration equipment. First timers may need to experiment with drying times to get the desired amount of crispiness in order to ensure that the fruit will last a while and still taste great. You can store dried apples in plastic bags (with the air squeezed out) in a cool pantry for several months.

For salads, try adding chunks or slices to any fresh tossed salad and to mayonnaise creations including tuna and chicken. For entrees, try adding the juice to glazes for ham and to gravies for roasts. Marination of raw meats is another possibility. For desserts, leaving aside the pies, you can serve stewed apples over ice cream or even bake apples with the hollowed-out cores filled with raisins and nuts. Pie variations include different crust solutions, from meringues or latticework tops to upside-down serving options, possibly with a brown sugar glaze covering the newly upturned bottom crust. Adding other fruits, like pears or raisins, and chopped nuts may well please any fussy dining companions who claim to have wearied of your standard apple pie.

If this is a year of apple abundance for you, celebrate it and get creative!

Florence Fabricant, "Apple Cider: It's the Drink for Tonight," New York Times
MaryAnna Clemons, "Root Cellars in the 21st Century," Grit Magazine
Jan Suszkiw, "Keeping apples crunchy and flavorful after storage", Agricultural Research Magazine