XP: Storing fresh produce

Lucky_N_Love

This is probably a stupid question but since I suck at meal planning and cooking I have no clue Hoping to improve with your help.

 When you buy fresh produce (apples, pears, peppers, potatoes, etc.) How do you usually store them to keep them best. Are some things best at room temperature in a bowl? What do  you put in the fridge? Should you keep them in the plastic baggie or put them in something else? Or nothing?

Thanks for helping me!

KYmama9286

The easiest way I have found to keep produce fresh is to only buy what you are going to eat that week. I used to grocery shop for 2 weeks at a time but too much went to waste because it would go bad before I could use it. I put almost everything in the fridge with the exception of: potatoes, bananas and apples. I sometimes will put apples in the fridge but in general they stay on the butchers block in a bowl. I also try and keep my fruit that is kept out separate (at least from the bananas) because I've heard that bananas can make other fruit go ripe more quickly. This may be an old wives tale and completely untrue but I make sure to not have the apples and bananas in a bowl together.

I keep all the other fruit/veggies in the fridge in the plastic bags they came in. Onions I buy by the bag and I keep those in a plastic kroger bag just because the skins get so messy in the drawer and a plastic bag contains them. I will usually freeze any berries I buy unless I know I am going to be eating them within like 2-3 days. Occasionally I will feel ambitious and I will wash everything so I can skip that step and I will often cut up my celery and carrots into pieces and store them in a tupperware w/ a little bit of water that way its faster to just grab a handful of cut up carrots and veggies. 

Missbollinger

Everything except bananas, potatoes and onions go in the fridge.  Celery and carrots in plastic they come in or ziploc if I have top and tailed them.  Berries and grapes are rinsed as soon as I get them home then in Tupperware in the fridge.  You can leave apples, pears in a bowl at room temperature but personally prefer cold fruit especially when the weather is warm.

HTH 

IAM4UK

I prep and store fruit right when I come home from the grocery.

Pototoes are left on the floor in a wooden potato bin. They like it dark and room temp. Onions and green peppers are chopped and put into freezer ziploc bags in 1 cup quantities. Easier to grab and use.

Strawberries, grapes, blueberries are rinsed and placed into ziploc bags for Katie to access on her shelf in the fridge for snacks.

Bananas are left on the counter. Apples are put into the frige because I think they last longer.

Broccoli, Carrots, Corn, Cauliflower, and Spinach are bought frozen already. Tomatoes are from my garden and are frozen as I pick them during the summer.

Everything else that I buy for the week is just left in the Kroger bags in our vegetable and fruit trays in the fridge. Mangos are left out though, but they are used pretty quickly.

 

Ttimes3

I pretty much follow these methods, although we do refrigerate our red potatoes (not yams or russet). I find that they last much longer and the refrigeration doesn't impede the quality.

As my mom always told me - in order to keep fruit fresh (longer), never wash it until you are ready to use it.