What's going on with my carrots??

fairy_lights

I bought a bag of carrots from Tesco the Saturday before last, this Monday evening I took two out of the bag to use for dinner and discovered the ends of them had turned to mush, I looked at the rest of them and the same thing had happened to the whole bag, mushy spots and they had started to ooze a disgusting, vinegary smelling liquid.
I though it was maybe because they were over a week old, but normally carrots keep for weeks without going off so assumed it was just a bad batch.
So I bought another bag from Lidl, opened it up this morning and the same thing had happened - mushy, vinegary carrots that had to go straight in the bin.
So that's two bags of carrots from two supermarkets that have been rotten in just over a week - is it a bad time of year for them or am I doing something wrong? I leave them in the plastic wrapping and store them on a kitchen shelf, should I be putting them in the fridge?

Pollybear

Hi, I store mine in the fridge in the cool box bit at the bottom. I take them out of the plastic bag and I line the box with a sheet of kitchen roll, they keep fine for me.

Smoosh

I take them out of the bag (or make a big hole in the bag) and store them in the drawer in the bottom of the fridge, never had any problems.

cutestkids

keep them in the fridge and take them out of the bag, plastic and vegetables do not mix well as moisture gets trapped causing the veg to go soft

Ilona

Yes, I keep them in the salad drawer in the fridge. In their bag, opened.
Ilona

LameWolf

I get great big bags of carrots for £1 a time at the local market; I take them out of the bag and store them in the bottom drawer in the fridge, on a "vegetable cushion" thing I got from L@keland, which draws any moisture through to underneath it, keeping the veggies dry. I can keep them for ages like this.

fairy_lights

I think I will store the next bag, opened, in the fridge. The 'vegetable cushion' is an interesting idea too, will have to look in to that.
It just seems really odd because normally I can leave bags of carrots like this for weeks with no problems, maybe the warmer weather is speeding up their decomposition?

GreyQueen

fairy_lights wrote: »

I think I will store the next bag, opened, in the fridge. The 'vegetable cushion' is an interesting idea too, will have to look in to that.
It just seems really odd because normally I can leave bags of carrots like this for weeks with no problems, maybe the warmer weather is speeding up their decomposition?

I'm encountering it, too. The carrots in the shops now will be last year's harvest, coming out of cold storage. They're washed and washed carrots don't keep as well as unwashed ones, whatever you do to them. All the advice above is good stuff, but it's making the best of a bad situation, unfortunately.

meritaten

as above - if the carrots are washed and then bagged they do deteriorate very quickly. If I notice the carrots are wet - I take them out of the bag and dry them and put them straight in the salad drawer.

dandy-candy

I found the carrots in shops lately very poor. DH went to buy some for me yesterday and said the bags were all frozen and iced up in what was meant to be a fresh section. That ruins the quality, and might explain why our ones have been awful lately.

cheerfulness4

I keep mine on the lowest shelf of the fridge in a very large brown punnet I'd bought mushrooms in. I line it with kitchen roll and pop the carrots in and they will last weeks even this time of year and when bought reduced.