Tuesday Tips-Make life easier (and cheaper)!
Two tips for keeping produce fresh:
Throw a lemon in with the apples in your fruit bowl to keep them fresher longer.
Keep bananas separate from other fruit to prevent them from ripening too quickly.
If your fruit does ripen too quickly, click here to read some great ideas for what to do with over-ripe fruit.
How do you keep your produce fresh longer? Leave a comment. 🙂
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If I wash and cut the strawberries up, they seem to last longer, than if I keep the stems on. I’m not sure why. Also I wrap my lettuce with a paper towel and it keeps it fresher longer. I keep my potatoes and onions in the refrigerator. I once had a rotten potato in the house, and that was enough motivation for me. The worst smell ever! I haven’t had any problems since. I cut up my green peppers as soon as I buy them and freeze. They are all ready to throw in anything I am cooking, such as chili, or a stir fry. Never goes bad!
Thanks for the reminder about wrapping lettuce in a paper towel. You can also do that with fresh herbs to make them last longer.
We rinse our strawberries with a little bit of vinegar in the water before putting them in the fridge – keeps the fuzzies away! My husband found that tip here: http://lifehacker.com/5888601/rinse-berries-in-a-vinegar-solution-to-keep-them-fresh-longer-and-mold+free
Thanks Kimberly. 🙂
Vinegar & water rinse also keeps the fuzzies away from grapes & other berries (blueberries, etc.).
I have heard–but not tried yet–that keeping apples by potatoes prevents the potatoes from sprouting.
I have never heard the lemon with the apples trick! Do you know why it works?
I made a post a while back with tips for keeping produce fresh and using it when it’s not so fresh: http://purposelyfrugal.com/2011/08/13/keeping-produce-fresh-and-using-it-when-its-not-so-fresh/#.T43-sR1KLZQ
I am not sure why it works. We actually discovered it by accident when our apples lasted much longer than normal, so we tried it again. I should research the science behind it. 🙂
If bananas ripen too quickly, I throw them in the freezer and make banana bread when I have time. Other fruits like pears and peaches can be sliced and frozen and used for smoothies or a fruit cobbler at a later date.
I do that with bananas too! Browning bananas seem to make better banana bread! And frozen bananas are my favorite way to thicken and sweeten a smoothie!
When you buy any fruit eat ASAP!