You walk into the produce section at the grocery store, and immediately you see a very colorful assortment of fruits and vegetables. They are so pretty! You choose a half dozen shiny red apples to take home. When you get home, you can’t wait to take a bite! As you sink your teeth into the bright scarlet skin, you are met with a less than appetizing *squish* and a bland taste. How could such a pretty fruit taste so awful?

Well, the apples you buy in the grocery store can be up to a year old—or even more!

Apples typically ripen in the U.S. between late August and early November. Yet you can find apples on the shelves of a grocery store all year round! How do they make these fruits immortal?

This is possible using cold storage where oxygen levels are low and many treatments that these stores would love to keep a secret. To keep the apples looking fresh, stores will wax all of their apples to keep them looking shiny and appealing. So what does all of this mean? Should we care whether our apples are a year old or a day old?

You may have noticed the obvious difference between fresh and stored apples in their flavors and textures. This alone may make you think twice about buying fruit that is not fresh.

Even beyond this, though, is the lack of nutrients older fruit has compared to fresh fruit from a local orchard. In storage, apples and other fruits over time will lose much nutritious dietary fiber. Also, antioxidant activity in apples decreases majorly and eventually stops after three months of cold storage. An apple stored for a year will have almost no antioxidants whatsoever.

So why buy fruit from a grocery store when you can get fresh, nutritious, delicious apples from a local orchard? Keep all of these things in mind next time you are tempted to buy a beautiful-looking apple at the grocery store.

Speaking of beautiful looking apples, we just started picking Ambrosia, Fuji, Snow Sweet, and more.

Stop by to try the different varieties available, and also to check out the popcorn, jams, caramel, goat soap, pies, and other goodies we have just for you. Looking forward to seeing you in the store!