Falling in Love with Passion Fruit

While we like to spoil you with freshly harvested goodies, we want to give you tips on how to make your produce last as long as possible.  How you store your fruits & vegetables will have a major impact on their taste and texture.

We all want to make our fresh organic fruits and vegetables remain eatable as long as we can.  However, often just putting veggies in the fridge accelerates the problem and they dry out.

So, lets look at a few tips on how to store your fruits and vegetables so you can enjoy them all week long.

First there is the band.  As soon as you get your produce out of the box, if there is a rubber band or a wire tie, it’s best to remove it.  A lot of your produce comes without them, phew!

Here are a few tips for Vegetables:

• Avocados – if they are hard, I place the ones I will eat later in the week in the refrigerator, while the ones I want to ripen up I place in a windowsill. I have read that you can place them in a paper bag at room temperature and add an apple to the bag if you want to speed up the ripening process.  Apples and bananas give off a gas that causes other fruit to speed up their ripening process.
• Arugula – arugula should not stay wet.  You can dunk in cold water then spin or lay flat to dry.  When storing you want to place a dry towel around arugula to help absorb any extra moisture.
• Basil – in regards to living basil, I simply put it in a vase with water.  It’ll also make your kitchen smell nice!  Remember you can dry your basil.
• Beets – some times we receive beets with tops, cut them off and place the green in an airtight glass container with a little moisture. When left on the root, the tops with draw moisture from the root.  Remember, your fresh organic produce is very much alive.  Some times you can even continue to grow them. But beets should be washed and kept in an open container with a wet towel on top.
• Broccoli – wrapping a damp towel around them then placing your fresh broccoli in the refrigerator is great, but if the broccoli is limp, cut about a 1/4 inch off the bottom exposing a fresh stalk, then place in a glass container with cold water.  Place in the refrigerator if you have room.
• Brussels Sprouts – again, the wet, damp towels works well on loose brussels sprouts.
• Cabbage – in a cool room cabbage will be fine for a four or five days, longer than that you will see the lefts start to wilt.  Remember after a week cabbage will loose it moisture.  Even more importantly, remember you can always make sauerkraut if you have too much cabbage.
• Carrots – love carrots and carrots with tops just look so inviting and lovely.  But like beets, cut off the tops.  I have restored carrots by placing them in cold water.  A damp towel would work too.
• Celery – love the crunch and the big flavor of fresh organic celery.  Eat it just for that right away, but remember that it can do just fine on the counter in a glass bowl with shallow filtered water.
• Cucumber – where do you think the saying “cool as a cucumber” comes from?  To preserve your cucumbers, wrap them in a moist towel prior to putting them in the crisper.
• Garlic – keep in a dark cool place
• Greens – a cup of water can do wonders to help keep your kale, chard, and collards fresh on the counter. Of course, as we stated earlier, remove all bands.  If you place your greens in the fridge, kept them in an air-tight container with a damp cloth.
• Green Beans – where did I place that damp cloth?  Use it again on green beans but don’t keep them wet, just give them a little humidity.
• Lettuce – lettuce wrapped in a wet towel inside a plastic bag keeps longer.
• Leeks – fresh leeks are beautiful.  a glass container with a shallow level of filtered water or a damp cloth wrapped around the leek works well.
• Potatoes – roots like dark dry places.  So I store my potatoes, onions and garlic in a dark corner of a cabinet.
• Radishes – again removing the tops prolong freshness then a wet cloth wrap works well. To me, it seems fresh radishes are more sweet than hot…
• Snap peas – refrigerate in an open container.
• Spinach – spinach loves cold so we store ASAP in a crisper.
• Spring Onions – crisper works here too and of course remove the bands and or ties.
• Summer Squash – I have left cut squash on a cool counter for a few days without a problem.  Whole squash is fine on the counter too.
• Sweet Peppers –  if you are using within a couple of days store in a cool room.  If you need a longer storage time, use the fridge.  Remember to wash them only before you use them. Wetness decreases storage time.
• Sweet Potatoes – sweet potatoes do not like the cold, so the refrigerator is not a good place.  Find a well ventilated place that is cool and dark.
• Tomatoes – never refrigerate.
• Zucchini – like summer squash, will do fine on a cool counter for a few days, even cut.

Here are some tips on making the fruit last longer, I personally wouldn’t know as my family tends to eat fruit like cotton candy!  On occasion when we do have fruit that is ripe and we can’t eat, I’ll cut it up and freeze for snacks and smoothies!

• Citrus – your oranges and grapefruit like good airflow and a cool place.  Keep them away from air-tight containers.
• Apricots – after apricots are ripe from being in a cool room, store them in the refrigerator.  I eat them too fast for the latter.
• Berries – These fragile beauties need careful attention.  If not eaten right away, it’s best to store them over a single layer.  Again, never wash until you are ready to enjoy.
• Figs – storing figs on a plate in the refrigerator works best up to a week.  Of course, un-stacked.  Really, can you go a week and not eat the figs?
• Melons – uncut melon needs cool dry storage out of the sun.  They should be fine for a couple of weeks.  Refrigerating cut melons in an open container is fine.
• Nectarines – we store them like apricots but take them out of the refrigerator a day to two before we eat them.
• Peaches – ripen on the counter then store ripe peaches and keep only ripe peaches in the refrigerator.
• Pears – if you need to speed the ripening of your pears, place an apple in a bag with the pears.  Pears are fine for a week on a cool counter.
• Persimmon – I can hardly wait for them.  Keep at room temperature until completely mushy. To fasten the ripening process place in a paper bag with a few apples for a week, check now and then, but do not stack.  They become very fragile when really ripe and the astringents subsides with ripeness.
• Strawberries – keep dry and in a paper bag in the fridge for up to a week.  Check the bag for moisture every other day.  Best to store these in a single layer.