Fruit and veggie tips
- Store apples, not touching each other, in baskets or boxes lined with perforated plastic or foil. Check often for any damaged fruit—apples give off a gas that speeds ripening, and injured fruits emit even more, accelerating ripening of nearby apples (thus the “one bad apple” saying). Apples are best stored at near-freezing temperatures (30–32 degrees F). Apples stored at this temperature will last up to 10 times longer than those stored at room temperature.
- Harvest turnip roots when they are 2 to 3 inches in diameter and before heavy frosts begin.
- Pick any green tomatoes before frost and wrap them individually in newspaper to ripen in a cool room.
- Pick outer leaves of collards and kale for cooking. If you leave a central growing point, plants will continue to produce new leaves.