September is a generous month, harvests are plentiful: apples, pears, walnuts, chestnuts… Sometimes, when we don’t know how to keep them, we don’t even try to harvest them and let them go to waste. These small tips and tricks are helpful during the harvest time to make sure your autumn fruits keep for a very long time!
Walnut is actually just the kernel of a fleshy fruit called a “drupe” in botanical terms. This fleshy hull is often called the “husk” for the walnut tree.
The right time to harvest is when the husk is still green but has split open, revealing the walnut inside. Usually, this spreads over a period of one month, from end of September to end of October.
It’s possible to pick the nuts directly from the tree, or instead wait for them to drop to the ground. If you prefer to pick them from the ground, eat them quickly or they’ll be infected with worms. In both cases, it’s important to remove the husk (watch out for stains on your fingers!) and brush the hull to remove all remaining filaments.
Fresh nuts, which are a bit bitter, keep for a few days in the refrigerator.
Chestnuts are dried fruits that don’t open up as they dry (the botanical term for this is indehiscent). They’re classified as “achene” fruits. Each chestnut is wrapped in a pod or burr surrounded with dense spikes, unlike the fruit of the horse chestnut tree which only have a few, softer spikes. The chestnut has a wispy tip (left over by the dried flower pistils), which help distinguish it from horse-chestnut which is poisonous!
Chestnuts should be harvested as they fall from the tree, from September to mid-November. Tread on them lightly with your foot to remove the prickly burr, and then toss them immediately in a pail of water to discard any that float: they’re hollow!
If it hasn’t been treated in any manner, the fruit will only keep for a single week in the coldest section of the refrigerator.
It’s extremely important to harvest before it freezes. In higher altitudes, if fruits don’t ripen because of constant cloud cover, pinch a few leaves off to expose the fruits.
For winter varieties of both apple and pear, the fruits finish ripening off the tree, in a special storage cellar. The harvest takes place around the second week of October, when the fruit comes off with a light twist. Fruits that are harvested too early tend to wrinkle during storage. Those that are harvested too late start rotting!
Store the fruits in a fruit cellar. An underground cellar with thick walls is ideal for this (constant temperature of about 45°F / 8°C, no freezing, moisture levels 85 to 90%). Disinfect the room beforehand, about 2 weeks earlier, by burning sulfur wicks inside. Position the fruits on the shelves, pears to one side and apples to the other. Make sure no two fruits are touching. For apples, turn them upside down (stem to the floor). For pears, store them right-side up (stem to the ceiling). Dipping the stems of pears in wax will slow their ripening. Check on your fruits regularly, at least once a week. Ventilate the room on a weekly basis. Eliminate any fruits that start rotting immediately.>> To learn more, read:
