Matilda: Green apples won't make you sick. To my taste Granny Smith never gets ripe. But if you like the taste, they won't hurt you. It's nice you have such a good crop. I have made up apple sauce to freeze. It freezes fine. You could also make apple butter but not sure how or if tart apples work well there.

The Fruitnut

Matilda:

Eating green apples never hurt anyone, unless it is seriously overdone, and even then the worst that can happen is a tummyache. But if you want to know if your apples are technically ripe, look at the seeds when you cut one open. Dark brown seeds mean the apple is fully ripe, while lighter brown means it will still sweeten up if left on the tree. Usually, when apples begin to fall from the tree they are ripe or nearly ripe, although apples that have not been thinned at all can fall prematurely just because they are so crowded.

Granny Smith is one of the latest-ripening of all apple varieties, and would normally not be ripe in your location until at least the end of September or maybe even October. So it is is likely that your apples are not Granny but something else, although I don't know what that might be. There are quite a few apple varieties that stay green even when ripe and ready to eat.

Tart apples make the best applesauce, which is easy to cook up and freeze in plastic containers. Either peel and slice them, cook them up, and mash them a little, or core and cook them with the skins on and run them through a food mill. Add sugar to taste. Most kids seem to love applesauce, and you would probably have no difficulty using a couple dozen quarts over the course of the winter if you have the freezer space. Like any frozen product, applesauce is best kept in a deepfreeze without automatic defrost rather than the freezer section of a refrigerator. You can also dry apple slices, but for that you would need a cabinet dryer, and the slicing and drying process is somewhat time consuming. However, if you have the time to do it, home-dried apples are delicious and another thing that kids seem to like very much as a healthy snack.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Matilda:

I should have included a few cooking tips in case you decide to make applesauce. Use a pan with a heavy bottom for good heat distribution, and a very low heat setting on your stove to avoid scorching. I mean like less than 2 on a scale of 10. Add just a little water to the pan to generate steam, about half a cup or so. Stir the apple slices frequently, again to avoid burning at the bottom, and do not add any sugar until the cooking process is over and you have turned off the heat.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Thank you fo all the information and suggestions! I'm looking forward to making the applesauce, and I am going to give drying a try. I have a book on preserving the harvest, and there is a whole section dedicated to drying!

Again, thanks for the information and sharing your thoughts with me!

I have not performed a true scientific experiment, but here is the anecdotal evidence that makes me suspect unripe apples can make one sick:

As a child growing up in Indiana, it happened more than once that my friends and I would start eating apples before they were ripe. I distinctly remember stomach aches and diarrhea within 6 hours. The standard explanation was that we had eaten too many unripe apples. (What IS too many?)

Second, my (early Sept, '07) my Stayman Winesap tree is beginning to drop apples like crazy (the drought doesn't help). We have pressed out about four gallons of cider, and are just getting started! But... I have have been drinking the cider (maybe 2-3 cups in a day) and diarrhea has followed. Not proof, but it IS consistent with consumption of unripe apples causing stomach upset.

I have two hypotheses why this MIGHT be: they are considerably more acid than ripe (low pH). Alternatively, perhaps the flesh of unripe apples is less digestible. Either of these could plausibly cause GI upset.

Does anyone have a reliable, medically based answer to this question?

I eagerly await a definitive answer.

Here is a link that might be useful: David F. Homepage

Fankster, if apples are extremely unripe they probably have all sorts of things to upset your stomach. Apples a bit unripe mainly have too much starch and are too sour. Too much of that will upset your stomach. But all you have to do is figure out what your tolerance is and stick below it. I have had to watch it recently because I have many new apple varieties fruiting and to figure out how they are ripening I am sampling a lot of green apples. Some of them I take a bite of and they are obviously too underripe, but they still taste good enough that I eat the whole apple. Can't do that too many times! Cider is in general a "loosener" and unripe apple cider probably more so.

Scott

Isn't there an old country dance called "The Green Apple Quick Step?"

Sounds like Fankster is familiar with the footwork.

Sounds like Scott has the advice: stay under your personal threshold.

Tony