Store and preserve autumn treasures correctly
Kira Zabe
October 1, 2024
In this article, we will help you to store apples correctly, which ones are best suited for this purpose and how you can easily keep them for up to 12 months.
September and October are our golden harvest months when it comes to long-lasting fruit and vegetables. Have you also been able to harvest lots of apples, pears, plums or quinces from the garden? Or were provided for by friends and family?
This is often a double-edged sword. Because everyone is happy about the great treasures that can be used to prepare all sorts of great things. But perhaps you also ask yourself how dishes can be modified so that you don't have to eat the same thing every day. After all, food can quickly become stale or even spoil if it is not eaten. That would be annoying, wouldn't it?
We want to help you with this issue and bring more variety into your diet with our tips and recipes. Our app also ensures that you don't miss any food expiring, saving you money. If you don't know it yet, give it a try!
Our first recommendation and also the best-known way to preserve ripe fruit for longer is preserving it. This prevents rapid spoilage and the preserved food can easily be kept for 12 months. Preserved food can easily be integrated into other meals in different variations.
Puree is a must!
Whether applesauce, raspberry purée, pear purée, apricot purée, plum purée, rosehip purée, coconut purée or nut purée. Puree is the easiest version of preserving.
It's very simple with puree. Whether for pancakes, porridge, pancakes or on cakes. There are no limits to your preferences.
Storing fruit correctly
Have you ever felt the same way, you have lots of apples and they rot faster than you can eat them? We know this problem too. In addition to the type of apple, the most important thing here is correct storage. Only the daily requirement should be stored in the fruit bowl. Everything else should be stored in a cool, dark place, such as the cellar. Humidity levels of 85 to 90 % are ideal here. It is also important to store apples separately from other fruit and vegetables. This is because apples affect their ripening process. If the apples are undamaged, clean and dry, they can keep until spring without any problems.
The apple variety, what makes the difference in storage?
Not every apple can be stored without problems. There are early/summer, fall and winter apples. With this list, we want to make it easy for you to get a better overview of the shelf life.
Granny Smith
- Best Storage Method: Refrigerate in a cool place (0-4°C)
- Shelf Life: Up to 6 months
- Storage Tip: Keep in a plastic bag with holes to retain moisture while allowing air circulation.
Honeycrisp
- Best Storage Method: Refrigerate in a crisper drawer
- Shelf Life: 2-3 months
- Storage Tip: Keep away from other fruits to prevent rapid ripening due to ethylene gas.
Fuji
- Best Storage Method: Store in a cool, dark pantry or refrigerate
- Shelf Life: Up to 5 months (refrigerated)
- Storage Tip: Wrap individually in paper to prevent bruising and rot.
Gala
- Best Storage Method: Store in the refrigerator
- Shelf Life: 1-2 months
- Storage Tip: Place in a perforated plastic bag to maintain humidity levels.
Golden Delicious
- Best Storage Method: Store in a cool, dry place or in the fridge
- Shelf Life: 3-4 months
- Storage Tip: Store loosely in the crisper drawer for maximum freshness.
Pink Lady (Cripps Pink)
- Best Storage Method: Refrigerate in the crisper drawer
- Shelf Life: 3-4 months
- Storage Tip: Avoid storing near strong-smelling foods, as they can absorb odors.
Red Delicious
- Best Storage Method: Store in the refrigerator
- Shelf Life: 2-4 months
- Storage Tip: Keep in a breathable bag to maintain texture and prevent softening.
McIntosh
- Best Storage Method: Refrigerate
- Shelf Life: 2-3 months
- Storage Tip: Handle carefully to avoid bruising, as they are softer apples.
Braeburn
- Best Storage Method: Refrigerate or store in a cold room
- Shelf Life: 2-3 months
- Storage Tip: Wrap in paper or store in a perforated bag to ensure air circulation.
Jonagold
- Best Storage Method: Store in a cool, dry place or refrigerate
- Shelf Life: 2-3 months
- Storage Tip: Keep away from direct sunlight and check regularly for spoilage.
Other methods
Compote is another way in which you can extend the shelf life of many types of fruit and vegetables. You can also store it for up to 12 months or even longer without any problems. It is important to do a visual inspection from time to time. After all, it's easy for a jar to become airy or perhaps contaminated at the beginning. Use our app to help you keep track of how much of what you have left and by when it needs to be used up.
Good preparation is everything!
This saying is not far-fetched and is an important tip when it comes to adding variety to your diet. Because instead of eating potato pancakes with apple sauce 3 days in a row, you can easily make delicious changes to your meals. Here we show you 3 ways to not only cover lunch, but also to spice up breakfast and dinner in a varied way.
Breakfast:Pancakes with apple sauce*
In between meals:Applesauce cake*, yogurt with applesauce
Lunch:Schupfnudeln with apple sauce
Dinner:Bread with peanut butter and apple sauce
Tip:Applesauce can also be used as an egg substitute. One egg is replaced by 70 grams of puree. Give it a try!
The tomato
The tomato is a vegetable that can also be preserved very quickly by canning, without long preparation. When you think of tomatoes, you probably first think of a delicious sauce that you can prepare. But with a little thought, you can also add variety to your plate.
If you make a tomato compote, you can easily make fantastic variations for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It tastes delicious on toasted white bread, ala bruschetta or on buttermilk biscuits for breakfast. A tomato and basil compote is also delicious with grilled meat or vegetables. It will keep in the fridge for around a month without any problems. If you want to keep it for even longer, boiling it down is essential.
You can easily make a sugo from boiled tomatoes to conjure up a delicious tomato sauce. This means that the often popular dish of pasta with tomato sauce can be whipped up in no time at all. Cooked tomatoes or vegetables are also very suitable for preparing casseroles. Whether as lasagne, moussaka or a vegetable quiche. There's plenty of room for your creativity here.
So, are you itching to get started right away? Great, then get to the jars. But don't forget! With all the storage jars in your hand, it can be easy to lose track of the shelf life and forget which one to use first. To prevent this from happening, our app helps you keep track digitally. Check right now whether everything is still in the green zone. Not using the app yet? Then download it now and test it for free.
We hope you enjoy preserving your fall treasures!
🍂 Cozy Autumn Leftover Cooking – Comfort dishes made from what's available
When the rain taps on the window and the tea cup becomes a permanent guest, the most beautiful kitchen time of the year begins: autumn. And what could be a better match than stylish leftover cooking – dishes that are not only sustainable but also truly exciting.
Autumn leftover cooking means: use instead of waste, but with a touch of sophistication. Here are some more unusual ideas to turn leftovers into small culinary highlights.
🧀 1. Pumpkin Gnocchi from leftover roasted vegetables
Do you have some leftover roasted pumpkin or sweet potato from the day before? Perfect!
Mash the vegetables, mix them with some flour, salt, and grated Parmesan, shape them into small gnocchi, and briefly cook them in salted water until they float to the surface. Then toss them in sage butter and top with chopped walnuts.
→ Tastes like Italy, looks like fine dining – and it's all made from leftovers!
🥖 2. Rustic bread salad with grapes and goat cheese
Tear stale bread into pieces, toast in olive oil until golden brown.
Add a few grapes (wrinkled ones are especially sweet), arugula or lamb's lettuce, crumbled goat cheese, and roasted hazelnuts. Mix with a dressing of balsamic vinegar, honey, and mustard.
→ A fall twist on the classic Panzanella – sweet, salty, crunchy, perfect!
🧅 3. French onion tart with leftover vegetables and puff pastry
Got some leftover puff pastry in the fridge? Make a tart out of it!
Caramelize onions in butter, add some leftover vegetables (e.g., leeks, mushrooms, or spinach). Spread on the pastry, top with a dollop of sour cream or cream cheese, and bake until golden brown.
→ Wonderfully aromatic, especially with thyme or rosemary.
🍎 4. Apple Sourdough French Toast with Vanilla Rum Butter
A piece of stale sourdough bread is soaked in a mixture of milk, egg, vanilla, and a dash of rum, fried in a pan, and served with fried apple slices and a rum butter.
→ Luxurious, yet made entirely from leftovers – perfect for a Sunday breakfast in pajamas.
🥬 5. Risotto made from leftover vegetables with lemon and herb oil
Chop the vegetable scraps finely and cook with a handful of rice into a creamy risotto.
A dash of lemon juice and some leftover herbs (parsley, basil, arugula) blended with oil make a fresh herb oil as a topping.
→ The acidity of the lemon beautifully enhances the earthy autumnal notes.
☕️ Bonus Tip: Using leftovers in a dessert glass
A few spoons of leftover compote?
Some leftover cake or cookies?
Layer it all with yogurt or mascarpone in a glass – and you have an autumnal "trifle" that looks like it came straight from a café in Copenhagen.
🍁 Conclusion
Autumnal leftover cooking is not a last resort, but a playground for creativity. When you look at ingredients with open eyes – not as leftovers, but as opportunities – small, exquisite dishes full of soul and flavor emerge.
Why we never stop refining Smantry ✨
At Smantry, we don't believe in 'finished'.
An app that is meant to accompany people in their daily lives is never complete – it grows, changes, and evolves. Just like the people who use it. 💛
We regularly pay attention to every detail:
How does a click feel? Is the path to a function clear enough? Does the idea behind a new view come across intuitively?
Sometimes it's just tiny things that make the difference – a better-placed button, a simplified overview, or a sentence that suddenly becomes clearer.
What drives us is the idea that Smantry should feel easy, familiar, and meaningful.
We want you to open the app and feel: "Ah, this is exactly how it should work."
Of course, not everything always goes perfectly. But that's exactly the point: We take the time to listen, to observe, to reconsider. Every piece of feedback, every use case, every new idea helps us to understand a little better what really matters.
Smantry is not a rigid product for us – it's a living process. A collaborative project that grows step by step.
And every update, every small improvement is a sign that we are on the right track:
A path to an app that doesn't feel like technology, but like support.
Towards a daily life that becomes simpler. Towards clarity, structure – and maybe even a bit of ease. 🌿
We're staying on it.
Because we are convinced that good things take time – and that it's worth creating them with heart.
Your
Smantry-Team
🌱 Staying on track made easy: How to stay motivated to create order and avoid food waste
We all know it: Initially, the motivation is high! You finally want to get your kitchen organized, keep an eye on your supplies, and shop more consciously. But after a few weeks, everyday life creeps back in – and the good resolutions start to falter.
With Smantry we want to support you not only in getting started, but also in sticking with it in the long term. 💪✨
1. Be aware of why you are doing this
Order and sustainability are not short-term trends – they grant you freedom, time, and a good feeling. If you know why you want to keep your supplies in check or throw away less food, it becomes much easier to stay consistent.
👉 Tip: Write down your 'why' in the app note or as a reminder.
2. Set small, achievable goals
Nobody becomes an organizing pro overnight. Start small:
- Today I'm just organizing the spice rack.
- Check the fridge this week.
- On your next shopping trip, purposefully buy only what you really need.
Small steps lead to success – and success motivates!
3. Make it easy for yourself – with smart helpers
Smantry automatically reminds you of expiring products, helps you keep track of your inventory, and assists you with shopping. This way, you have to think less and can enjoy more.
👉 The less effort required, the easier it is to stick with it!
4. Celebrate your progress 🎉
Creating order or avoiding waste is a process, not a sprint. Regularly review what you have already accomplished – you may already see that you need to throw away less or that your supply is finally manageable. That's great!
5. Make it part of your routine
Schedule fixed 'Smantry moments': for example, briefly check the inventory on Sundays or update the shopping list before going shopping. Routines provide structure and make sustainable actions a matter of course.
💚 Conclusion:
Motivation is not a perpetual flame – but with the right tools and habits, you can reignite it time and again.
With Smantry, you have a smart companion by your side that helps you stay organized, consume more consciously, and incidentally do something good for yourself and the environment.
More clarity when shopping: How Open Food Facts and the Smantry app make nutrition transparent
Many foods look healthy at first glance – but what's really inside them? Are the nutritional values balanced? How processed is a product? And what impact does it have on our environment?
This is exactly where the Smantry-App comes in: It uses the globally open database Open Food Facts, to give you immediate clarity when scanning your items. But what's actually behind the colorful labels like Nutri-Score, NOVA or Eco-Score, that you encounter in the app?
Let's take a closer look at the background.
Open Food Facts: From the Idea to a Global Database
The journey began in 2012 with the founding of Open Food Facts – a non-profit organization that collects, analyzes, and makes food information freely accessible worldwide. The goal from the beginning was to provide consumers with scientifically substantiated information.
What started as a small project has now become a global platform with millions of products. And it is precisely this data that the Smantry-App uses to give you a clear overview directly on your smartphone.
An overview of the most important scores
1. Nutri-Score – how healthy is my product?
Since 2016, the Nutri-Score has been legally established in France – and it has quickly spread throughout Europe.
- A (green) means: very balanced.
- E (red) means: unbalanced, enjoy in moderation.
The rating is based on calories, sugar, salt, saturated fats – but also on positive factors such as fiber, protein, and the proportion of vegetables.
👉 So in the Smantry app, you can see at a glance whether a food item fits into your everyday life – or perhaps should be on the table less often.
2. NOVA-Score – how processed is it?
Not only the ingredients, but also the degree of processing plays a significant role for health. This is exactly what the NOVA-Score (integrated into Open Food Facts since 2018) shows you:
- 1 = unprocessed or minimally processed (e.g., fresh fruit, plain yogurt)
- 2 = ingredients such as vegetable oils, sugar, flour
- 3 = processed foods (e.g., bread, cheese, canned goods)
- 4 = highly processed products ("Ultra-Processed Food"), often with additives, flavors, and industrial processes
👉 With the Smantry app, you can instantly tell if a product is still 'close to nature' – or if it falls into the category of being highly processed.
3. Eco-Score (soon to be Green-Score) – how sustainable is my shopping?
Since 2019, Open Food Facts also includes an environmental assessment: the Eco-Score. It takes into account, among other things:
- CO₂ emissions from production and transportation,
- Packaging and recyclability,
- Origin and seasonal factors.
The rating is – similar to the Nutri-Score – from A (very eco-friendly) to E (less sustainable).
By 2025, this will become the Green-Score, which will take into account even more detailed data and thus provide you with even better guidance for sustainable consumption.
👉 For you in the Smantry app, this means: You can see not only whether a food is healthy for you, but also whether it is good for our planet.
What this means for you as a Smantry user
Currently, you can scan your products in the Smantry-App and view many details. The scores themselves are not yet integrated – but the integration is planned.
This means: Soon you will be able to see not only the nutritional values of a product but also how healthy, processed, or sustainable it is – all directly in your app.
Conclusion: Your Smart Nutrition Compass
The colorful labels are much more than pretty symbols. They are your quick compass in everyday life – whether you want to shop with health consciousness, reduce highly processed products, or pay attention to the environment.
With the Smantry-App you already have strong support for more transparency while shopping. And with the planned integration of the scores, it will become even more valuable – your smart nutritional compass for the future.