storing fruit and veg

ler01kjh

Supermarkets store most veg at 10c. The key to keeping veg as long as possible to to maintain a consistent temperature - to avoid fluctuations of a warm car, then a relatively freezing fridge, then in and out of the fridge when cooking. Probably best if you have a pantry to store in there, or in a cool part of the kitchen, chilling in the fridge should not do harm. Things like (all the) berries, ready-to-eat fruit, prepacked salads, and even flowers are chilled in supermarkets.

Olliebeak

I suppose the main priority about keeping veg for any length of time, is to make sure that there is nothing remotely 'on the turn' when you put them to store - that's guaranteed to set all the others off as well.

Angelraesunshine

onions i keep in a wicker basket in the bottom drawer and last ages, potatoes i used to store inthe same place in a plastic basket but found they were going soft and groing eyes within a few days so i have now moved the basked to the floor where they are now lasting ,much longer but i keep tripping iver them so might need to rethink this. All other veg i keep in the bottom 2 drawers of my fridge.

rockie4

Onions, garlic and potatoes in cloth bags in a cupboard, other veg in the fridge.
I am a great fan of the Lakeland stayfresh bags though, I've even kept spinach in them for over a week :eek:

Mushrooms are in a Lakeland mushroom bag but before I got that I would take the plastic off and put a piece of kitchen roll at teh bottom of the box, they'd usually keep a week like that.
Apples, bananas and citrus fruit in the fruit bowl, other soft fruit in the fridge.

sarahjay

I read something about this a little while ago - saying that carrots keep much better if you top and tail them before putting them in the fridge - it works for me. See this site for loads of tips
http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/storage_and_tools

terill

Hello Everyone!

I always keep my potatoes in old cereal packets in a cupboard- works especially well for sweet potates. Tomatoes taste better not stored in fridge but in a basket on worktop or veg trolley. Carrots seem to keep fine in cold compartment of my fridge but did I read somewhere once about keeping them in sand? Or is that just to grow them? Don't keep anything in cellophane- esp. mushrooms as they "sweat". Best thing really is to buy frozen veg as after only a couple of days most veg not frozen seriously begins to lose a lot of it's nutritional value.

Cheers

jomknight

If you need to cut and use part of a hard cabbage use a cheap plastic knife. The remainder keeps better - in the fridge.

ms_piggy

the seed producers recommend storing carrots in sand when they are picked. Havent tried it yet as we are eating them as soon as they are picked

badkitti

I was once taught:

if its from south of the equator -
don't put it in the refridgerator!

chrisfh

I keep my potatoes in the dark in a cupboard and out of the plastic, but still seem to get eyes and roots after a week. I'm sure in the past potatoes lasted much longer. Would I be better with a cloth bag?