Making your foods Last Longer...

[nperkins]

What do you guys do for your fruits and vegetables to get them to last longer? Which veggies do you put in the fridge? which do you keep out?

[jeff]

This is a very good question.

In most cases cut fruit/veggies tend to hold up better when they're in some type of acidic fluid.

Lemon or Lime juice works wonders as with vinegar.

As far as keeping fruits/veggies fresh and what to put where. that really depends on what your goal is. in most cases the fridge will stop a fruit or veggy from getting any more ripe.

Potatoes, dark dry place
Tomatoes, dark dry place
carrots and celery I keep in my fridge. if celery is cut, place it into a bowl of water.
Onions, dark dry place
Fruits I like to leave out unless they're too ripe or are cut open.
Lemons/limes I keep in the fridge.

Pretty much what it comes down to is shop often and buy your fruit/veggies fresh. I really dislike having any fruit/veggies for more then 3 days.

One thing to remember with celery, if it gets soft, place it in some cold water. it will crisp back up.


Cliff Notes

Buy often and eat fresh. then you wont have to worry about fruit/veggies going bad on you.

[nperkins]

Yeah, thats what i need to get the wife doing is to do $20-$30 trips to the store every 2-3 days instead of $100 a week... Will save a bit of cash, and stop wasting food too..

Onions & potatos in dark dry... hmm... so no fridge? I'll have to put them in the pantry (Once I finish it)

[jeff]

whole onions and potatoes that have not been cut into.

If they've been cooked/cut then you should keep them in the fridge.

[nperkins]

Thats probably why when i have them on top of the fridge, or in the fridge, they dont last as long. :)

[jeff]

update on this, I've been reading up a bit on onions.

Potatoes and onions should both be stored in a dark dry area that allows for air circulation (not stacked on each other)
however, onions and potatoes SHOULD NOT be stored together. Potatoes put out moisture and that will help the onions to sprout giving the onions a more bitter flavor.

so cliff notes.

Potatoes = dark dry area
Onions = dark dry area
Potatoes and onions together. They just dont mix.