STORING FRUIT

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 4824, 29 November 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

STORING FRUIT

Tho fruit room ought to be well ventilated, for which purpose it should have a smhl 1 fireplace in it. A room long and narrow is generally best adapted for ventilation and heating, and drying when necessary, by a flue. Forsyth directs that all tho shelves or floors on which apples are to be kept or sweated should ho mado of white deal; when red deal is used, it is liable to givo a disagreeable resinous tasto to the fruit and “spoil its flavour. When white deal' cannot bo procured, ho advises .covering the shelves with csftivas. Tho following is a German mode of storing fruit: —’Ac apples, for instance, aro loft as long as possible on the trees, till frost is expected. When the fruits aro gathered, they are placed in large tuns, and filled with dry sand; during tho summer the sand ought to bo dried bv exposing it to the rays of tho suu. After tho bottom of tho tun is covered with somo sand, a layer of apples is put npon it. Having filled the space between tho apples, and covered inmn sufficiently with sand, an additional layer of apples is placed, again covered with sand, and so tho process is continued until tho tun is full. The peculiar advantages of this mode aro: (1) tho sand excludes tho air, which is essentially requisite for thoir duration; (2) tho sand prevents the evaporation of tho apples, therefore their aroma is preserved, and the humidity, or “sweat,” whicli appears on all apples, is quickly absorbed by tho dry sand.