Storing and preserving your summer fruit
How to store and preserve a summer glut of fruit: ripening, cool storage, freezing, drying, bottling and jam, with simple tips to keep it at its best.
A good season can leave you with more peaches, plums and apricots than you can eat in a week. With a little planning, that glut becomes fruit for the whole year.
Start with good fruit
- Pick in the cool of the morning and get fruit into the shade straight away.
- Handle it gently. Bruised fruit rots quickly and spoils fruit next to it.
- Sort as you go: perfect fruit for eating and storing, marked fruit for using first, damaged fruit for the compost (unless it has fruit fly).
Fresh storage
- Stone fruit: ripen at room temperature, stem side down in a single layer, then refrigerate once ripe. Eat within a few days.
- Apples: keep cool and slightly humid; in the fridge crisper or a cool shed in ventilated boxes. Sound apples of good keeping varieties last for weeks to months.
- Pears: pick mature but firm, store cool, and bring out a few at a time to ripen at room temperature.
- Citrus: often best stored on the tree, picked as you need it.
- Keep apples and pears away from other fruit and vegetables; they give off ethylene, which speeds ripening.
Freezing
Freezing is the easiest way to keep a glut.
- Halve and stone peaches, plums and apricots. Peel peaches if you like.
- Spread pieces on a lined tray, freeze until firm, then pack into bags or containers. They won't stick together.
- Berries and figs freeze well whole. Frozen fruit is perfect for smoothies, sauces, crumbles and baking.
Drying
Apricots, plums, figs, apples and pears dry well. A food dehydrator gives the most reliable results; a low oven also works. Cut fruit into even slices or halves, dip apples and pears in lemon juice to stop browning, and dry until leathery with no moisture when squeezed. Store in airtight jars in a cool, dark place.
Bottling, jams and sauces
Bottled fruit, jams, chutneys and sauces keep for a year or more. Always follow a tested recipe and method, with clean, sterilised jars and the right processing times, so the fruit stays safe to eat. Label every jar with what it is and when you made it.
Share the surplus
Neighbours, friends, local food swaps and community pantries are often glad of good fruit. Sharing also stops fruit dropping and feeding fruit fly.
Record each pick, and how much went to storage, in Trees n Bees. Harvests compared season on season show which trees fed you best, and help you plan how much to preserve next year.