How to Correctly Store Produce

So, how many of you just put most of your produce in the fridge in one spot? Yeah, me, too. Until tonight. I did not realize how extremely wrong I was putting them away. No wonder all of my stuff spoiled way faster than it should have. Today I went and picked up my first Bountiful Basket. I will go over the proper way to store all the items I received in my basket, as well as some common ones. By the way, these baskets are SO worth it! If you want to see if there is one near you, check out www.bountifulbaskets.org

First things first – do NOT put fruits and vegetables together. Did you know that fruits ripen faster, and in doing so, make everything near it ripen faster? Me either.

Strawberries- These delightful berries, I am unfortunately allergic to. I’ve heard they are delicious. My three year old loved them. DO NOT wash them until you are ready to eat them. They soak up water fast and will rot much quicker if you do that. If you plan to eat them that day, leave them on the counter at room temperature. The best way to store strawberries to be eaten with a few days is to cover a plate with a paper towel and lay them in a single layer. The paper towel sucks up excess moisture. If you aren’t planning to eat them within a few days, you can freeze them. I’m told that this scenario makes for some killer smoothies.

Watermelon- Oh, summer’s best, naturally sweet little treat. Uncut watermelon needs to be stored at 55 degrees or higher. In other words, keep this sucker on the counter. They will keep for 7-10 days in room temperature. Watermelon tastes better cold, so a few hours before you want to chop it up, put it in the fridge. Once you decide to eat it, be sure to wash the melon to rid it of any dirt. If you only eat a little of it, put plastic wrap over the remainder and it will hold up in the fridge for an additional 2 days.  Not going to eat the rest in two days? No worries! You can freeze watermelon, too! (I’m REALLY excited about this one) Cut the watermelon in half and remove the rinds and seeds. You can cut it into slices, wedges, cubes, or even break out the melon baller. Spread the pieces in a single layer and freeze until  firm. Move the firm pieces to freezer bags or containers. Leave ½ inch at the top for expansion. Thaw the watermelon in the fridge before eating. Or be cool like me and before you freeze them, shove a popsicle stick in it and then eat it frozen. Watermelon pops! Frozen watermelon is good for 4 days.

Romaine lettuce- That’s the really big leaf ones. Not the heads you buy in the store. That is iceberg and must be prepared and kept in a different way. I’ll get to that in a moment. For romaine lettuce, take the leaves apart. Fill the sink with COLD water and soak your leaves for half an hour. Dry the lettuce very well. I used a crapload of paper towels, but apparently there is this nifty kitchen gadget called a salad spinner that I need to invest in. Much quicker and a lot less expensive over time if you eat a bunch of salad like me. Anyway, once your leaves are dry, take two paper towels (attached) and lay it flat. Put the dry leaves in the middle and wrap them up in the paper towels. If the leaves are too long, rip them in half. Take your mummified lettuce leaves and put them in a gallon zip lock bag. Press all of the air (or as much as you can) out of it and seal. Place in your fridge. This method should keep your romaine nice and crunchy for at least a few weeks.

Iceberg lettuce- The difference in the iceberg vs romaine is that the iceberg lettuce is wrapped super tight, not allowing much room for dirt to get on the inside. Dispose of the outside layer of leaves and rinse the entire head of lettuce. Shake to get water out (it will seep in as you are rinsing) and then dry the outside with a paper towel. Wrap the entire head in paper towels and store in a zip lock bag. Once you need to use the lettuce, just take some leaves off (or cut a chunk off) and then wrap it back up and place it back in the fridge. Should keep good for a few weeks.

Celery- I really love celery. Who doesn’t have fond memories of eating ants on a log as a child? However, I have been storing my celery in the wrong way. Well, technically not the WRONG way, but in the way that makes it die the fastest. So, to prolong the life of your celery stalks, break out the tin foil. You want to wash your celery really well. I personally take the stalks apart so I can make sure to get all of the dirt from it. Bad experience in the past. I went to eat a stalk that I had previously cleaned (and left fully attached to the rest of the stalks) and there was a bug on it! Ewww. Ever since, my celery comes apart. Back to the storing. Once your stalks are all sparkly clean, wrap them in tin foil. This method will keep your celery good for weeks! The other way is to keep it in the plastic bag you buy it in (unless you buy it fresh from a farmers market). That way keeps it good for 7-10 days.

Broccoli- My second favorite vegetable. I was the weird kid who loved veggies and preferred them over junk. You want to choose a broccoli head with tight green florets and a firm stalk. Talks should look fresh and moist. You do not want yellow florets or brown, dried out stems. Store your broccoli unwashed in an open plastic bag in the fridge. If bought fresh (i.e. from the farmer’s market), your “trees”, as my 3 year old calls them, will last about 10 days. Wash in cold water just prior to cooking or eating.

Mangoes- I have just recently dived into this tasty little fruit. Choose your mangoes based on smell, not color. The color is the difference in variety, not ripeness. Keep the firm mangoes at room temperature until they are slightly soft. If you can indent them slightly, move them to the fridge. They will be good for 2-5 days. If you want to save some of that for after the 2-5 day period, you can freeze them! This will give you an additional few days. If you freeze the whole mango, the skin will turn black, but the flesh will be fine. Just a bit softer.

Green herbs- This refers to green onion, cilantro, parsley and other greeny ones. Wash your herbs and dry very well. Moisture lessens the flavor. Line a small freezer container (I use Tupperware) with a paper towel. That will soak up any excess moisture. Chop as you wish and then freeze in the container. Do not thaw these before using them. Just toss it into whatever you are cooking while they are frozen and you are all good.

Potatoes- Inspect your potatoes. Any that have splits in the skins, soft spots or sprouts need to be used quickly. Those will rot fast and are not suitable for long term storage. For your perfect potatoes, place them in either a cardboard box or a paper bag. This will keep the ventilated. Ideally, you want to store these in a dark place between 50-60 degrees F. You want to check them often and remove any that are soft or sprouted. If you grow your own potatoes, allow them to dry completely before storing. DO NOT wash your potatoes until you are ready to cook them.

Tomatoes- Here was my big no-no. Do not store tomatoes in the fridge. They are best kept at room temperature. This actually boosts their flavor. Tomatoes need TLC. Move them around every day so that they aren’t sitting on the same spot and bruise. Bruising = rotting. They should keep good for about a week.

Bananas- Hands down, the best fruit ever. In the words of the Doctor, “Always bring a banana to a party, Rose.” Choose wisely when buying bananas. Green are not ripe. These are optimum for storing without freezing. Most bananas are yellow when ripe, but some are brown or red. Brown spotted are the sweetest. If there is more brown/black than yellow, they are over ripe. If bananas are gray or dull colored, they have been refrigerated and that interferes with the ripening process. Avoid those bananas! Never store in a plastic bag. Plastic bag = moisture = rotting. I am seeing a trend with moisture here. To ripen green bananas, place in a paper bag. If you want them ripe in a day, toss in an apple or orange. Remember my prior statement about fruits ripening faster? Here is where that comes in handy. Ripe bananas can hang out on your counter (preferably in a banana tree for air circulation) if you plan to eat them within a few days. If not, put the RIPE bananas in the fridge. The fridge slows the ripening, but doesn’t completely prevent it. They will be good for about 1-2 weeks. But the best thing about bananas? Yep, the freezer! Once again, pull out the popsicle sticks and make banana pops. Drizzle some chocolate on them, yum! You can also freeze it for other things, like baking some banana bread. The easiest way is to chop them into chunks before freezing. Separate into amounts you will need and freeze in a freezer bag or Tupperware. If you freeze it all together, they will stick together and make it much harder to get apart for recipes. Or you can always freeze the entire banana, peel included, and then just thaw them in the fridge for a bit before using them.

Apples – You can seriously store apples for like ever. Perfect apples, that is. You don’t want to store the ones with bruises for a long time. Those need to be eaten right away. If you have the perfect apples, here’s how to go about keeping them for a long, long time. You need some newspaper. Avoid color ink, as it contains harmful metals. Take your perfect apple and wrap the newspaper around it. Be gentle. Apples need love. Twist the paper at the top slightly, just so that it won’t unwrap. If you twist too hard, the paper tears. Don’t want that. Place the wrapped apples in a box. Not airtight, but tight enough that there isn’t insane amounts of air circulating through. Gently does it! Ideally, you want to store them in a cool, dark spot. However, do not put them near potatoes. Potatoes release a harmless gas that spoils apples faster. Apparently they have some lifelong feud.  These will usually stay good for months. Just remember to check them every once in a while. Remove bruised or spoiled ones.

Cucumbers-  Guess what? I’ve been storing these wrong, too. Cucumbers are not meant for the fridge. They are sensitive vegetables and are susceptible to cold injury. Don’t harm your cucumbers! They will usually last up to 3 days in there without starting to go bad. Cucumbers are best kept at room temperature in a plastic bag. Who knew? This will keep them for 1-2 weeks. And, they also have a lifelong feud with bananas, melons and tomatoes. Don’t store them next to each other, or those 3 will gang up on the cucumbers and bruise him up.

Lemons- No feuds here. Store them in a plastic bag in your refrigerator. They should keep good for up to 3 weeks. Helpful tip – lemons with thin skins have more juice!

Onions- Most onion, like the red ones, can be stored for up to a month in a hanging wire basket for good air flow. Cool temps turn their starch into sugars, so don’t keep these bad boys in the fridge.

That’s it for now, folks. Thanks for reading my newfound knowledge of how to prepare and store common produce. If you want to fact check me, do a little research. I got most of my info from DIY garden blogs and Wikipedia. I’m sure I will be back to update as I get more delicious food from the Bountiful Baskets co-op.