How do you store your fruits & veggies short term?

[Wifezilla]

Mother Earth News did a great article on how long eggs keep. Coating them with some type of grease was not one of the better methods.

Eggs will keep for a month or more just sitting on the counter. In the fridge, I think they made it almost a year.

 

[old fashioned]

A YEAR????? Sorry but that almost sounds suspicious although I suppose anything is possible. Was that for a home grown or store bought egg? Or does it matter? With MEN it's probably homegrown, but that just seems like such a long time.

 

[Wifezilla]

There was a loss in quality, but they were still edible. Here is a link to that story. I printed it out and added it to my SS scrapbook

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/1977-11-01/Fresh-Eggs.aspx

The experiment was pretty detailed and I liked the comparisons between washed & unwashed, homegrown vs store, etc... A great experiment.

 

[JRmom]

Coating the eggs in vaseline is more to keep the salt air and humidity from the eggs. I'm sure it's not the best way to keep eggs in your kitchen.

 

[moolie]

Short term:

Potatoes are kept cool and dark in a rubbermaid bin in the basement--lid propped open a bit for circulation. If potatoes are left out in the light they turn green and poisonous (something called solanine I think?)

Carrots are kept in a rectangular Tupperware veggie keeper box with a removable bottom grid in the fridge--they'll actually keep for months this way. The grid keeps them from sitting in their own condensation. If kept this way for more than a month they do start to get a little hairy (rootlets) but are still firm and edible.

Radishes and beets in the crisper.

Apples are kept in the fridge for eating each week--we like to eat them cold. Long term we keep them in boxes in a cool bedroom in the basement.

Onions sit in 4-cup paper takeout holders from Wendy's on top of the fridge--again, they'll keep for months like this.

Fresh peas stay in the shell (if we don't eat them all out in the garden while picking them!) wrapped in a damp cloth in a bowl in the fridge. Unless we get lots and are shelling them right away to blanch and freeze.

Beans are picked right before cooking to eat or blanching to freeze so don't stick around.

Garden lettuce is picked as needed, extra goes to the food bank or homeless shelter that provides meals because sometimes there is just too much to keep up with. Purchased lettuce is kept in a glass bowl with an identical bowl inverted over top in the fridge.

Spinach is treated as lettuce, except that if we need to keep any beyond picking it we put it into another Tupperware veggie keeper box with removable grid in the bottom (we have two).

We've never managed to grow corn, and rarely buy it by the ear, we just buy it frozen so keep it that way. We don't eat much corn.

Berries from our raspberry bushes go straight onto cookie sheets in the freezer, then into plastic containers for future use, fresh berries or grapes go into the fridge and are washed as eaten. Or we buy bulk to make into jams, which we do right away.

Pears, peaches, plums we put half out in the fruit bowl and keep half in the fridge so they don't all get super ripe at the same time. Oranges in the fridge.

Bananas in the fruit bowl, tomatoes and cucumbers and peppers on the counter, cut tomatoes/cukes/peppers go in the fridge. If I get a bunch of peppers all at once (from the garden or store) I cut them up into 1" pieces and freeze them for recipes.

Friends of ours who keep chickens say that fresh eggs will last 2 months out of the fridge if they are never refrigerated, my understanding is that refrigerated eggs are dated for a month but will last up to 4 in the fridge.

 

[old fashioned]

WZ-great article & experiment, but I sure wouldn't want to be part of that experiment or the one to have to eat some of those test eggs

 

[Wifezilla]

Me either!!!

Nice of them to take one for the team eh?

 

[Boogity]

WZ-great article & experiment, but I sure wouldn't want to be part of that experiment or the one to have to eat some of those test eggs

Whew! Me too. There is little in life worse than a rotten egg.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

DH found that for stuff like asparagus, kale, cilantro, brocoli & cauliflower, they last a LOT longer if you treat them sorta like a cut flower.

Cut the stem at an angle, put them in cup of water (so the bottom of the stem is barely covered) and store in the fridge.

I use my "crisper" drawers for meat, since they're at the bottom and won't leak bloody juice on anything.

 

[JRmom]

DH found that for stuff like asparagus, kale, cilantro, brocoli & cauliflower, they last a LOT longer if you treat them sorta like a cut flower.

Cut the stem at an angle, put them in cup of water (so the bottom of the stem is barely covered) and store in the fridge.

I use my "crisper" drawers for meat, since they're at the bottom and won't leak bloody juice on anything.

That's a great idea. I usually keep beer in my crisper drawers.