I love fresh green beans but I don’t love cleaning and snapping them. I have been known to bring home a large bag of green beans and avoid it all week long. Then just about the time I think, “if I don’t use ‘em, I’m going to lose ‘em”, I open the bag and find that they have rotted or molded or whatever they do in those plastic bags. While I do like to save time, I do not like to waste money, and improperly storing food can waste a lot of money. It is “produce time” when we enjoy eating those healthy fruits and vegetables and saving money because they are so plentiful. Tomatoes fresh from the garden are the best but we need to properly prepare and store these goodies.
Did I mention that I do not like the mess you make shucking corn? We love fresh corn on the cob grilled or even just boiled but if you want to eat it you have to shuck it. So, I have found it’s best to shuck corn when you bring it home from the store. Store it in a zip locked bag ready to cook, it takes up less space and saves time later when you get ready to cook.
The good news is that as we store our produce properly we’re also going to save time when we’re ready to prepare them for dinner. Who wants to open a crisper drawer and find that yesterdays strawberries are today’s science project…yes, the mold experiment. Now I am not an expert at food storage but I have wasted enough food for one lifetime. No one likes wasting money on food that cannot be eaten. Here are some very basic thoughts that will definitely help you ensure that your fresh fruits and vegetables last longer.
1. Fruits and vegetables do not mix…keep them separate in the fridge. (This is why refrigerators have two separate crispers.) Also, many fruits, like apples and pears, emit a gas that causes other fruits and vegetables to ripen quicker.* So, store all your fruit except the apples and pears in the fruit crisper and keep apples and pears in vented bags in the bottom of the fridge.
*Use nature to your advantage by adding an apple or banana to a bag of fruit to speed ripening.
2. Remember that humidity is a friend of fruits and vegetables and the refrigerator makes cold air by removing moisture, so crispers are key. Crispers were designed to keep moisture in so try to always use them. Some crispers have adjustable openings that can increase and decrease humidity levels. Vegetables require a little more humidity than fruits. If you have two drawers, keep fruits in one and vegetables in the other, and adjust the humidity accordingly. Placing a paper towel in the bottom of your crisper will actually help maintain the humidity (be sure to change it out every week).
3. Herbs can be very costly and seem to shrivel up quickly so treat them like fresh flowers stem side down. Trim the stems about ¼” and place them (stems only) in a glass of water when you get home, change the water daily or remove and wrap in paper towel, and place in an unsealed plastic bag. Keep sweet basil in water on your counter, it doesn’t like cool temperatures.
4. With fresh produce, we sometimes pick it up at a farmer’s market or outdoor stand where the vegetables or fruit are sitting in 90-95 degrees. When you bring them in and place them in a fridge the drop in temperature causes condensation to form. So, it’s often best to take them out of the bags and place them on a counter until they cool down before storing in refrigerator.
5. Bananas should never go in a refrigerator and they should never be placed near other fruits or they ripen more quickly.
6. Lettuce and other leafy vegetables need to be rinsed, wrapped in paper towels. You can also use a salad spinner to clean and then remove moisture before storing in the fridge.
7. Berries and grapes should be stored in the plastic containers they are purchased in, or a vented bag.
8. Mushrooms cannot be washed until you are ready to use them.
9. Store potatoes, onions, garlic in paper bag or basket (not together). Exception – new potatoes and green onions should be stored in the fridge in a crisper.
10. Pineapple, kiwi, melon, papayas, pears, apricots, and plums can be stored at room temperature out of direct sunlight if desired. This is a new thought for me, tomatoes are best stored at room temperature. They should not be refrigerated until they have been cut.
Remember that a rotten strawberry in a container will contaminate the entire batch so be sure to remove any fruits or vegetables that are bruised or rotting. Especially with potatoes, get the bad one out or they will all go bad. There is a principle there!
Well, check out the Food Storage Information page at Mealessence.com for a more comprehensive list. But remember that the savings do not end when you leave the grocery store. My friend, Kate, told me that she had read an article and according to a study done at the University of Arizona, we Americans throw away 25% of all the produce that we buy, mostly because it has gone bad. That alone is motivation enough! For more information check out this link www.vegetariantimes.com/resources/produce_storage_guide/