How to Keep Produce Fresh

• Take produce out of plastic bags when you get home from the store. Airtight wrappings suffocate fresh produce and speed up the process of decaying.


• Don’t wash produce until you’re ready to use it. Moisture encourages decomposition and the growth of mold.


• Don’t tear off fruit and vegetable stems. Once these living cells are broken, microorganisms begin to grow. Keep all your produce whole for as long as you can.


• Keep fresh herbs in a glass of water loosely covered with plastic wrap to keep them fresh longer, just change the water often.


• Buying a combination of ripe and unripened fruit is fine, as long as you make use of their natural gas to either shorten or lengthen their shelf life as needed.


• Use the most perishable produce first. Check out how long the fruits and vegetables that you purchased will last and try to use the ones with the shortest shelf life first. Also check out the suggested storage methods for each fruit and vegetable while reading each page for tips on keeping produce around longer.


• If you have a dehydrator (if not you can use a very low heat in your oven): Dehydrate leftovers for DIY soup mixes and dips. Dry the last bits of celery, parsley, onions, garlic, and ginger before they wilt. They make great seasonings.


• If you use a juicer, don’t throw the pulp away. It can be added to things like meatloaf for added flavor and moistness. Or, dry it and turn it to powder to add some fiber to breads and soups.


• If you’ve got canning supplies, ferment vegetables before they rot.


• Use your freezer. Keep cilantro and parsley stems, onion peels, celery leaves, mushroom stems and other veggie scraps in a bag in your freezer. When you have enough, simmer them into a stock for soup.


• If you’ve too many fruits about to go bad, throw them in a freezer safe container for later use in a smoothie.


• Try freezer-safe glass Mason jars. Fill them with anything, like homemade applesauce and then load the jar even while the food is still warm. Once you screw on the lid they stay nicely in the freezer without having to use plastic containers or bags. Most plastic containers crack easily when frozen.


• Popsicle molds, muffin pans and ice cube molds also work well for freezing pureed fruit pieces or other liquids. They can be popsicles, ice for drinks, additions to smoothies or added to other recipes where you need some juice and have none fresh.


• Use your baking pan to roast any vegetables that may be reaching their eat by date while you’re making dinner. A little olive oil or butter and salt & pepper and you’ve got a nice side dish or addition to your freezer for a future heat & eat.


• Go through your freezer each month if possible, just to see what’s in there. Once you know what’s in there, you are more likely to find a use for it. Also, if you find things that you can’t figure out what they are due to freezer burn then it’s probably time to toss those items.