How To Store Your Fruits And Veggies So They Stay Fresh

You come home feeling so good that you just bought a bunch of fresh produce…

You had fun picking out the bright green lettuce, the beautiful avocados and tomatoes…

The cool-looking heads of cauliflower and broccoli…

The tender little blueberries, strawberries, or raspberries…

And you’re so proud of yourself for making these great food choices because you know this stuff is going to make your body really happy.

But it can be a total bummer to open the fridge or look on the counter and see that your beloved fruits and veggies are rotting!!

Whaaaaa!

How To Store Your Fruits And Veggies So They Don’t Go Bad Before You Eat Them

The other day I found this article from Dr. Mercola, and this article from Mint.com. Both are on the topic of how to store fruits and vegetables for maximum shelf life and freshness.

I love finding articles like those because when you’re eating a lot of raw food, it’s important to get to know your fruits and vegetables and how they behave once they’re in your kitchen.

So be sure to check out the Mercola’s and Mint’s articles for tips for storing apples, asparagus, berries, citrus, dark leafy greens, onions, garlic, and lots of other great produce.

More Tricks For Keeping Your Fruits and Veggies Fresh So You Can Eat Them Before They Go Bad

• The Paper Towel Trick:
  My friend Jaclyn showed me how to keep my cilantro and other delicate greens (even cucumbers!) fresh in the fridge by wrapping them first in a paper towel and *then* putting them in the bag and into the fridge. The paper towel will absorb moisture (which totally can ruin veggies and herbs). This is really easy to do so it’s totally worth trying.
• Stop The Ripening:
  If you have something that’s already pretty ripe (mango, tomato, avocado, banana, etc.) instead of storing it on the counter, put it straight into the fridge. The cold air in the fridge will slow the ripening process.
• Speed Up The Ripening:
  When I have an unripe avocado and I want to help it ripen quicker, I put it in a brown bag with an apple or a banana then I close up the bag and put it in a dark area. As you’ll read in the articles about storing your veggies, apples and bananas let off a natural gas that makes other foods around them ripen quicker. The article talks about this as something to watch out for, so my tip here is about how to use it to your advantage.
• Relax – It’s OK:
  If you see a little bruising, browning, feel squishiness on some of your fruits or veggies, or even see some mold on the outside of a nectarine or lemon, that doesn’t mean they’re totally bad. You don’t have to throw the whole thing out. Just cut off the spoiled part and use the rest of the fruit or veggie that’s still in perfect condition. I do this all the time.

If you’re just getting into eating more fresh raw foods, be gentle on yourself at the farmer’s market or grocery store.

It’s more important that you continue to have positive experiences with your fruits and veggies than it is to try to stock up your entire fridge with fresh produce and then feel totally discouraged and bummed when a bunch of it goes bad because you didn’t eat it in time.

That creates bad feelings and bad associations with having fruits and veggies in your kitchen.

So instead of setting yourself up to feel discouraged and disappointed (not to mention kinda mad that you spent money on all this stuff and then it went bad before you ate it)…

Make friends with going to the store a little more frequently for your fresh produce.

Yes!!

Buy little amounts each time you visit the store.

Give yourself some time to get used to how the fruits and veggies behave in your kitchen.

Think of it this way…

If you buy a ton of produce, it’s as if you have a very weak green thumb and you just brought home a bunch of new house plants that all require different amounts of attention in order to keep them alive.

One needs partial sun, one needs full sun, one needs to be watered every 10 days, that one needs to be watered every other day, this one needs fertilizer and can’t be near heat sources…

It’d be too much to deal with when you’re just starting to develop your green thumb, right?

So don’t do that same thing to yourself when it comes to fruits and veggies.

Fruits and veggies are like house plants – they’re alive!

But because they’re out of the dirt or off the tree, fruits and veggies don’t last as long as house plants.

That means you have to be even more skilled in caring for them.

So in the beginning, just stick to just a few “new house plants” (fruits and veggies) and learn how to care for them in your kitchen before you bring the entire garden into your kitchen.

Remember, these fruits and veggies you’re bringing home are living. And if you’re going to enjoy them, you need to know how to sustain their life while they’re in your kitchen so that you can enjoy the delicious taste and nutritious benefit of them.

You’re nurturing your green “fruits and veggies” thumb here my friends…

This is exciting!