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Tips for Keeping Produce Fresh

Published on July 29, 2011 By Emily. Updated on July 7, 2013

csa week 10

If you’ve been paying attention, you’re probably aware that we generally have a lot of produce in our apartment.  Between our weekly CSA pick ups and any other vegetables I buy, we keep our fridge pretty full of fresh food.

There’s nothing worse than having to throw out produce, especially when you paid good money for it.  It’s taken us a while to figure out the best ways to keep the food fresh, but we’re finally meeting with regular success.  How do we do it?

Have a plan

The best way to avoid throwing away produce, especially if you have a CSA share is to plan to use it. The farm emails us a list a few days before pick up, so I plan my menu around what I know I can get. I even go to the farm with a list.  I very rarely pick up food that I don’t have a use for, because history has shown that it just sits in the fridge until it spoils.

Let your vegetables dry

I’m not sure how much of it had to do with our refrigerator, but our produce kept getting frozen.  Lettuce that’s been frozen does not taste good.  After throwing out several items that got ruined, it occurred to Brian that the food we bring home from the farm is pretty damp because they rinse it.  So, we started leaving our vegetables out to dry for a few hours before placing them in the fridge.  No freezing since!

Wrap leafy greens in towels

How do you make lettuce last?  Generally, we just wrap ours in a kitchen towel and stick it in the produce drawer of our fridge.  The towel lets the produce breathe, but keeps it dry and fresh.  Plus, if you roll tightly, it makes a big head of lettuce a little more manageable.

scallions test

Use produce saver bags

A few weeks ago, the folks at Clearly Fresh sent me some of their new fruit and vegetable zip bags.  We tested them out and, as you can see in the picture above, scallions kept in the bag (left) held up much better than scallions left unpackaged; they’re really only bent because they needed to fit into the bag.  We’ve been using the bags for scallions and lettuce and we’re pretty happy with them.  I was hoping when I got the bags that they’d be washable and reusable (which is what we do with most of our zip top bags), but the special breathable section of the bag is paper and not washable.  Still, we manage to get a few uses out of each bag and they really do work. 

disclaimer: Clearly Fresh sent me a package of bags to try for free, but my opinions are my own.

basil in water

Water your plants

I think this works best because our farm vegetables are super fresh, but you could give this a shot with supermarket vegetables as well.  Put the stems of your food into a vase or a large glass of water (it sometimes helps to trim off the ends of your stems first). We’ve done this with basil and different kinds of kale. The basil especially drank up the water, stayed fresh and repeatedly produced new flowers for days.  We were able to eat it for a week.

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Filed Under: food Tagged With: advice, produce

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Comments

  1. Shannon [Tropical Eats] says

    July 30, 2011 at 1:17 pm

    hahah that picture of him with the greens is amazing.

    my lettuce always goes bad. always plan on making giant salads.. but never do. :(

    great tips!!!

    • Emily says

      August 1, 2011 at 5:49 am

      Maybe I should make Brian the official Relishments model?

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Emily
Last week Brian and I finally got around to hiring Last week Brian and I finally got around to hiring a sitter for a rare night out. We went to dinner at @publicna and took advantage of the opportunity with drinks, appetizers and dessert.

Pictured:
- Citrus Braised Beef Tacos
- "Chicken and Waffles"
- House Fries with Garlic Aioli
- Fried Chickpeas
- Blood Orange Cheesecake
It was no surprise that Public was close to full on a Wednesday night - everything was so good. 

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#igers413_food #igers413 #BerkshireFoodies #InTheBerkshires #EatLocal #WesternMA #WesternMass #Berkshires  #VisitTheBerkshires #NorthAdams #NAmazing #PublicEatAndDrink
New year, new theme word! This year's word is "enr New year, new theme word!
This year's word is "enrich" and I'm really excited about it.

I've written more about this year's theme on the blog. Click in the link in my profile or follow the link below to read the post.
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https://www.relishments.com/blog/my-2023-theme-word-enrich/
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#YearlyTheme #MyOneWord #2023 #enrich2023 #NewYearsResolution
It's not New Year's Eve without a Top 9 post. It's It's not New Year's Eve without a Top 9 post.
It's almost all #Berkshires content this year, which is great.
1. A pasta salad reel that took longer to create than the recipe took to make.
2. A reel from North Carolina where I could have watched birds all day.
3. The @thelazygenius book giveaway.
4.@plantconnector 
5. @berkshiremuseum 
6.@sculpture.now at @themountlenox 
7. @massmoca 
8. @mountainviewfarm413 
9. The #AshuwillticookRailTrail
New on the blog: My 2022 reflections on last year' New on the blog: My 2022 reflections on last year's theme word - resume. 

I was able to get back to many activities that were meaningful to me this year and I'm calling this theme a success. Follow the link below or click the link in my profile to read more.
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https://www.relishments.com/blog/reflections-on-resuming-in-2022/
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#resume2022 #newyearsresolution #myoneword #yearlytheme
New on the blog: My Favorite Recipes of 2022. For New on the blog: My Favorite Recipes of 2022.

For the fourth year, I've recapped the best new (to me) recipes I made this year in the hope that they'll give you some new dishes to try. This year's list is short, but delicious. It includes @budgetbytes My Favorite Recipes of 2022
Published on December 30, 2022 By Emily. Updated on December 30, 2022

It’s hard to believe that 2022 is basically behind us. Though overall this year found me getting back to the person I want to be (post-babies and “post”-pandemic), I did not try nearly as many new recipes this year as I used to. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I’d made note of any new-to-me recipes I wanted to share in this post. This year’s list is short, but delicious. It includes recipes from @budgetbytes, @smittenkitchen and @howsweeteats.
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Read the post by visiting the link in my profile or 
https://www.relishments.com/blog/my-favorite-recipes-of-2022/
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#RecipeRoundUp #BestRecipes2022 #FavoriteRecipes
@coastalmainebotanicalgardens continues to be one @coastalmainebotanicalgardens continues to be one of the highlights of all my return trips to Boothbay and their annual Gardens Aglow event continues to impress. It was great to be back to walking the gardens instead of the pandemic drive through and there seemed to be more lights than ever.  I'm already looking forward to next year.
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#Boothbay #BoothbayMaine #CoastalMaineBotanicalGardens #GardensAglow #BotanicalGarden #MidcoastMaine
It has been a while, but there is finally a new CS It has been a while, but there is finally a new CSA menu plan on the blog! Visit the link below or in my profile to see how I plan to make use of some of the @mightyfoodfarm produce seen here.
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https://www.relishments.com/blog/welcome-to-winter-farm-share-csa-menu-plan-148/
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#MightyFoodFarm #EatLocal #EatSeasonal #VermontGrown #CSApickup #CSAshare #KnowYourFarmerKnowYourFood #MenuPlanning #MealPlanning #igers413 #igers413_food #BerkshireFoodies
Fall in the Berkshires is always incredible, but t Fall in the Berkshires is always incredible, but this year we've had weather that has also been outstanding. The past 2 weekends have included time at Jaeschke Orchards, the Greylock Glen, and the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail as well as stopping to photograph any random foliage I see. 
Check out the last slide for video of some feathered friends we saw on a walk.
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#igers413 #InTheBerkshires #EatLocal #WesternMA #WesternMass #Berkshires  #VisitTheBerkshires #FallFoliage #FallColors #autumn #AshuwillticookRailTrail #JaeschkeOrchards #GreylockGlen
@freshgrassfestival continues to be one of my favo @freshgrassfestival continues to be one of my favorite events each year, and it doesn't hurt that it's just minutes away from home. Enjoying the festival with my kids is definitely a different experience than without, but it's still a good time. The weather was especially cooperative today which was great for all the laps I did around the @massmoca campus pushing a stroller. I'm already looking forward to next year.
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#igers413 #InTheBerkshires #WesternMA #WesternMass #Berkshires  #VisitTheBerkshires #NorthAdams #NAmazing #FreshGrass #FreshGrassFestival #MassMoCA #MusicFestival
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