Making fruits and vegetables keep (tomato, apple, carrots, refrigerated)

[jtur88]

How do you store your fruits and vegetables?

Here's an interesting video of a bowl of various fruits and veggies in time lapse. Note that the separate tomato in back lasted more than twice as long as the ones that were touching each other.

http://www.wimp.com/decomposingfruit/

I keep onions and potatoes in the fridge. Onion because refrigerated onions make for tear-less slicing and chopping. Potatoes don't wrinkle or sprout in the fridge.

I keep bananas out, until they are just right, then put them in the fridge. They blacken quickly there, but keep the same flavor and texture.

I keep tomatoes in the fridge, but I keep two out, to ripen, and because I like to eat them at room temperature.

Lettuce (whole head) and celery in closed plastic bags in the crisper, and I flick water into the bag each time I reclose it. Bell peppers in a loose plastic bag in the crisper.

[findinghope]

i keep wondering what it was like to have a root cellar. i mean people kept veggies down there all winter right? or am i just dreaming. was it just root veggies down there? was the cool underground air what kept the, "fresh"...?

[BigDGeek]

My trick for making radishes last a long time is separating them from the leaves, patting them dry, and putting them in a tupperware container with enough room for them to roll around so they're not packed tightly. I've had radishes last for a couple of months stored this way. Leave them in that plastic bag attached to the leaves and they'll go soft and rotten pretty fast.

If I have strawberries developing those telltale soft spots right before they go moldy and I'm lucky enough to have a pineapple, I cut all of them up and store them together. For some reason it takes strawberries forever to go moldy if they're in a container with pineapple chunks. Must be the acid.

[Inthesierras]

Originally Posted by findinghope

i keep wondering what it was like to have a root cellar. i mean people kept veggies down there all winter right? or am i just dreaming. was it just root veggies down there? was the cool underground air what kept the, "fresh"...?

I have several friends with root cellars and they really do keep certian veggies throughout the winter. My friends keep onions, potatoes, and squash in their roots cellars along with turnips, beets, and carrots. The carrots, beets, adnd turnips are stored in boxes of sand. That is supposed to help them last longer. Apples do pretty well too.

[mtneer]

Is there any way of extending the life of cherries, grapes and muscadines in the fridge? It seems like they always mold before I can finish a package.

And cucumbers too? Seems like they turn mushy in just a couple days in the fridge.

[kelsie]

I have been using Debbie Meyers Green Bags for the last couple of yrs. for fruit and vegetables. I keep the vegetables & fruit in separate conpartments so they don't send their gases to one another to spoil. With the use of these bags the life of veggies and fruit is at least 2 wks.

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by mtneer

Is there any way of extending the life of cherries, grapes and muscadines in the fridge? It seems like they always mold before I can finish a package.

And cucumbers too? Seems like they turn mushy in just a couple days in the fridge.

Berries might be victims of the principle that made the tomatoes rot much faster if they touched each other. Whenever I have berries or grapes, I just eat them all up within 24 hours.

I've never had that problem with cucumbers. You might try just putting them in a shelf in the fridge, instead of in a crisper drawer touching other veggies.

I keep a jar lid in the fridge, and when I cut a banana or a cuke, I cut it so it balances on the cut face, and stand it up on the jar lid. The cut end keeps quite well, and no fussing with wrappers. You can keep a cut onion fresh that way, too.