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Am I produce challenged??? Seriously, even cucumber with mold within a week? Get's me to asking two questions:
How on earth does the "humidity control" work on the fridge drawers? Do we open all the way or close them?
And-what do you refridgerate and leave out? We have tried every combination but now I just left out bananas, nectarines and plums. Grapes, strawberries, carrots, broccoli, green beans are in the fridge. Avocado, onions and potatoes are out. What about sweet potatos? tomatoes?
Hmmm...I'm sure that others will have much more and better info than I, but we've (and by "we" I mean DH) been experimenting with this a lot as we joined a CSA this summer and are getting more produce than we can handle...
Your list of what stays in and what stays out sounds right to me. I always leave sweet potatoes out with regular potatoes. Tomatoes stay out, but that has more to do with preserving the best flavor...refrigerated tomatoes get mealy.
DH believes that the humidity control works. The way I look at it, you want things that wilt in higher humidity...things that mold in lower. We've been trying to wash our greens immediately and put them in plastic bags with some damp paper towel...has been making them last MUCH longer.
I've never had a cucumber mold, so I'm a little perplexed by that one, but berries and things that are prone to getting moldy/mushy shouldn't be washed before they go in the fridge. Wash them as you use them.
Onions, potatoes, garlic, etc should be in a cool, dark, dry place.
HTH! I'll be looking forward to input from others!
I'm glad you asked, b/c some of yhe items we get from the csa are a wilty mess when we are ready to eat the next day. It's a reall issue since it is practically impossible to eat anything the day we pick it up (we can't p/u until after 6 pm).
I have read that lettuce can be refreshed in a cold water bath about 30 minutes.
Broccoli in salt/ice water bath 30 minutes.
I try to store my onions and potatoes away from each other. When together, they seem to rot faster. My mom says store in the garage in winter/basement in summer.
I leave out the same things as you. Tomatoes and sweet potatoes out.
Next time I get asparagus, I'm going to try to store it in a tall glass with a bit of water at the bottom. That is how I see it at the store.
Here are a couple of resourcesI found quickly, but I really wish I could find something better. I'm hoping someone has better advice.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-...re-produce.htm
http://www.emerils.com/recipes-help/...-Store-Produce
eta maybe your cucumber already had a bruise? I would not think it would have spoiled so quickly.
Separate onions and potatoes -- something about the gas produced by onions will make potatoes go bad if stored together. That said, I don't think vegetables are really supposed to last forever in the fridge. I would expect to eat most berries w/in 3 days of purchase and vegetables w/in a week.
At first I was going to say, "Because you bought them at TJ's!" referring to my gripe in another post about their produce always going bad on me...
I'm learning a lot already from the replies. I have nothing to add except that I saw somewhere - an infomercial???- some *revolutionary* produce bag. A lady's name was attached to the name of this patented bag. Sounded like a good idea. Anybody got one?
They are crap. I bought into the whole thing too. . and ended up wasting $10. They don't work any better than regular plastic bags. Consumer Reports just did an "expose" on them in the last issue of Smart Shopping.
My fridge drawers are prelabeled FRUIT and VEG and the humidity corresponds to what you push the dial to, if that makes any sense and I don't have a lot of mold issues. Incidentally what I have found that works great is this little green disk I picked up for about $3 at Walmart, by the bananas. It's supposed to collect some type of gas that produces gives off and makes it spoil. It's worked so far. I get an extra 4 days on some things and longer on others.
yeah-saw the infommercial on the bags and the next day saw them at the local drugstore. we were tempted but didn't do it, now glad we didn't.
I don't seperate onions and potatos so I will now.
I don't expect things to go forever but we only get to food shop once per week and I hate that the berries go bad. it says not to wash until ready to eat for strawberries but then if one starts to go, it must "infect" all of them!
We have EvertFresh bags from my co-op grocery store and they really do work, especially with veggies- I even did my own expermint to test them out. I don't know how/if they are different than the ones mentioned here that don't work.
Good storage containers helped us with the berries and cut fruit/veggies. I am way too lazy to wash as we use. I tend to buy at Costco, so I was a bunch and cut a bunch at one time. I can wash and cut up strawberries. Make sure they're dry when put in the containers.
Even berries last 7-10 days in my fridge. We had strawberries today (7/15) for lunch that I bought on 7/5, washed/cut/stored on 7/6. We do a lot of cucumbers, carrots, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, watermelon, and cherries around here.
That is some amazing hang-around time...Quote:
Originally Posted by belovedgandp
What kind of containers to do find that work well, or is it the "work" you put into prepping them ahead of time?
Sad to know Debbie's bags don't work. It was a fleeting thought, but I thought that if they ended up on "that wall" at Bed Bath and Beyond, they must be a gimmick. Now I won't even look.