Apples are sold by volume according to the traditional Peck. We grade them for fruit quality into Firsts, Seconds, and Deer & Horse Apples. Pricing is similar across the board with a few premium varieties costing .05-.30 cents more per pound.

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Graded Apples: Firsts - Seconds - Deer & Horse Apples(3rds)

Firsts are optimum for eating and baking. These premium apples should be free of defects and have the best shelf life for the specific variety. Each variety is different which makes certain ones more difficult to grow than others from year to year. We try hard to keep the Firsts quality uniform across the board. However, a few varieties could have more strict guidelines.

Seconds are best for pies and baking. They will have a bruise or insect sting or other defect. These apples have not fallen on the floor but will have issues which deem them not our best. They should not have a cut in the skin; sometimes a cut can be hard to see if it is fresh, caused from the washer. It is possible for them to be more ripe or less ripe causing them to have more flavor variability and less storage life. Many people find Seconds good enough to eat and indeed they can be better than many people are use to getting. But there will be variability.

Deer & Horse Apples are apples which have fallen on the floor. They are never picked from the ground in the orchard. They are washed. These are not suited for human consumption as they have gone on the floor. These could also simply be too soft and will not last for the customer.

Apple Storage at Home: Refrigerate

We store apples at 30F-33F in our Cold Storage. It is important to refrigerate your apples but keep in mind your refrigerator is not nearly this cold. It is probably 45F. The second most important and most often forgotten aspect is humidity. Apples like other fruits and vegetables are dominantly water. Refrigerators by their nature remove water from the air to cool the air. This in turn dehydrates the fruits and vegetables, and is the cause of shriveled apples. Some apples have a more thick skin wall to slow this process but they all will loose moisture in a refrigerator. Using a crisper and or keeping your apples inside the plastic bag will reduce dehydration. In addition you can add a moist paper towel to the bag.

Some people enjoy their fruit room temperature. This is fine, but keep in mind as the season goes on the fruit will not keep as well without being kept cold. We recommend removing 1-3 apples per day from the refrigerator so they are eaten as fast as they are warmed up to room temperature. Certain varieties will keep longer in the spring on a counter than others. If you only like fruit that is hard and juicy then be sure to keep it as cold as possible.

Apples freeze at 28F, this can mean a garage in December could be a great place to store your fruit. Normally a house side wall inside the garage does not freeze but will be much colder than a refrigerator at 45-50F

Keep in mind that just because the fruit in your home/refrigerator has started to soften and loose its crispness this does not mean Sage's Apples are in this same situation. We try very hard to always have hard, crisp, juicy apples year-round. Many varieties have multiple picking days to help some keep longer and many are even stored in CA Rooms to help keep them hard longer. We always pick them ripe and ready to eat, but we know which ones are picked a few days late or early and can choose when we sell them based on what we know about their harvest.