Waste Not, Want Not - Keeping Vegetables Fresher Longer

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Here are some tips to keeping your produce fresher for longer. If you are anything like me, you hate prepping to make a recipe with ingredients that you just bought and find them, well, lacking. Here are some tips that help me.

1. Keep your fruits and vegetable seperate! Fruits, tomatoes included, produce Ethylene Gas (a natural ripening agent). Vegetables however are very sensitive to ethylene gas making them rot when in contact with these. Fruits tend to do better out of the refrigerator, especially tomatoes.

2. Vegetable are living and breathing. When you put them into the refrigerator you are in a sense putting them into a coma to prolong the life. That's a good thing. When you put your living, breathing vegetables into a plastic bag you are suffocating them. This is a bad thing. I use these exact Reusable Produce Bags. They allow the ethylene gas to escape, prolonging the life of your vegetables/fruits. I have two sets and take them to the grocery store with me, or transfer my produce at home when I forget them. I have increased the life of all my vegetables!! Oh yeah! They are washer friendly too! I do not put them in the dryer but I do wash them and they're great! Brand new again!


3. Vegetable Specifics:

• Mushrooms: Remove from store packaging and store these in a paper bag.
• Celery: Remove the store packaging and wrap in tinfoil. This will make your celery last for up to THREE WEEKS!!! Hard to believe but so true, I have been doing it for years. Also, if your celery is limp, cut the bottom of the stem and place in a glass of water overnight. The celery will crisp back up.
• Tomatoes: Place upside down (stem side down) on the counter. This prevents bruising. 
• Potatoes, Onions, Squash and Garlic:  These are earth grown and should return to the earth. Keep in a dark cool place and remove from the plastic bags, again with the produce bags above. NOT THE REFRIGERATOR! I keep them in a dark cupboard.

4. Herb Keepers are great!!! I have an herb keeper at home and think it's great!! I have the one below but if you don't want to spend the money on it a great solution is to put water in a glass, add your herbs and voila!!



I hope that you find something here that was useful to you. It took me a while to figure all this out on my own.