When autumn comes around it’s always the same scenario with my harvested apples… I eat them fast while they’re fresh because If I put some in my home fridge they’re going to deteriorate within weeks… So when I read in nursery catalogues that: … »Goldrush redefines «storage apple» as it can keep up to 11 months… » I cannot but ask myself: What are they talking about?
Putting Goldrush apples in regular home fridge? Putting them in a «special» home fridge? (is such an appliance exists?) Maybe they are talking about a special «controlled atmosphere» industrial fridge? I’m lost…
When I put some Golden Russet in my fridge they are as hard as a rock but 3/4 weeks later they look like a long forgotten potato in an obscure closet… and are so «soft» that they don’t inspire me anymore (the crunchy is gone but the taste is still «wow».
Any advice for keeping apples crips at least for more than 3/4 weeks in a regular home fridge?
For a good storing variety of apple I put 5-7 per plastic grocery bag and tie the top up tight. Put 'em in a spare fridge in the basement and we’re still eating great tasting ones at least up to 5 months later. If one rots and negatively affects the others, it’s only going to get the ones in that bag and not all of them. Additionally I think the bags help control humidity. Otherwise a fridge will dry them out and they’ll be shriveled up, as you described.
I bought a huge pack of apple bags on amazon a while ago. I think it was 1000 bags.
Price was cheap at the time. These are just plastic bags with holes in them.
This keeps my apples from drying out. Also, it seems apples do better in non frost free refrigerators.
I bag mine in unperforated bread bags, twist-tie them tight, and keep around 30 F for months. Some keep better than others. I will often find a little ice in the bags. Best if the fridge is not self-defrosting.
I’ve followed @marknmt’s method. Plastic bags with no holes. Tie bags tightly. I could keep my Gold Rush nice and crisp until March. By April, they start to lose crunchiness but still tasted nicer than many store bought apples.
For storage, I think it is better to pick apples before they fully ripen. My GR turns from light green to yellow in storage. Acidity will also goes down making apples taste sweeter and less tart.
Assuming that you have good storing apples these are the issues you need to deal with:
Storage Temperature. Most apples will store best at temps between 33 and 36 with high humidity.
A regular no-frost refrigerator is a dehumidifyer. The way it keeps the frost off is by venting the moisture out of the fridge. The “apple” and “bread” bags you read about have very small holes so that the moisture is retained and the humidity is kept higher,
BUT the next issue you need to deal with is ethyline gas which is given off by the fruit and other items in the fridge and that is the gas that is used to artificially ripen veggies that are picked green (tomatos etc). The bags that hold the moisture also trap the ethyline gas. There are ethyline gas absorbers you can find easily.
Now after that long winded preamble, …
See if you can find an old non frost free refrigerator. New is almost impossible except for some commercial units.
The easiest solution is a non-frost-free freezer which you control with a temperature controller (google it, there are many many) to keep the temp in the freezer at the temp you want.
Below are just a coyple of examples from ebay or amazon