With the exception of the Gala variety, summer apples do not store as well as fall apples, because they have a high water content and tend to become mealy. Apples continue to ripen at a rapid rate even after they are plucked from the tree, but refrigeration dramatically slows this process. This is why cold storage is such an effective way of keeping apples available year-round. Once your apples reach a stage of ideal ripeness, put them in the refrigerator if you won't be able to eat them right away. The best late summer apples to use for cooking are Gravensteins, Lodis, Cortlands, Galas, and Ginger Golds.
Apples go well in both sweet and savory dishes.
A favorite European combination is fried apples with pork. Here in America, of course, we have the pie. Look for apples in such summer dishes as fruit salads, cole slaw, chilled soups, and fresh apple tarts. Most shoppers think only of green seedless when they look for grapes. But there are many kinds of grapes, and very often the ones with seeds have the best flavor.