When You Have Too Much of a Good Thing… (Prolong Fresh Produce)
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| Photo Credit: Mark A Miller |
| Don’t let your bountiful, healthy harvest go to waste! |
When your garden is producing fruits and vegetables full tilt (or if you just bought too much at the grocery store), it can be a challenge to eat all that food before it goes bad. If you’re worried about your bountiful harvest (or food dollars) wilting and rotting away, consider these tips and tricks that can help prolong the life of your fresh produce:
Chill it. To slow plant respiration and prolong the crispness of your produce, store your fresh fruits and veggies in the fridge at a temperature around 40-45 degrees F. Just be aware that refrigeration can reduce flavor – and not everything needs a chill (think tomatoes, potatoes, bananas and oranges). That said, don’t feel too bad about giving your freshly picked produce the cold treatment. In fact, most commercially grown produce that’s harvested in summer is chilled to “remove field heat,” because the heat from the sun that’s absorbed by plants is detrimental to fresh produce once it’s picked. (That’s because the fruit or vegetable is continually hydrated while it’s still attached, but once picked, the metabolic processes continue without any energy inputs from the parent plant. Chilling slows those processes and maintains the fruit quality until it can reach the consumer.) Additionally, chilling can slow the growth of any bacteria or disease that might be present. | Add Photo to Journal |  | | Photo Credit: Megan Bame | | Wrap a paper towel around lettuce before popping it in the fridge to help preserve crispness and absorb unwanted condensation. |
Cull it. Some produce – fruits especially – naturally emit a gas called ethylene that encourages ripening. In some cases this is beneficial. For example, if you want to ripen an apple or a peach more quickly, just place it in a brown paper bag overnight. The bag becomes an ethylene chamber, causing the fruit to ripen itself thanks to the more concentrated exposure to its own ethylene gas. But if you’ve got fruit that’s already damaged or past its prime, separate it from its healthy brethren. Too-ripe fruit will cause other produce to mature more quickly – this is especially true if fruit is stacked in a bowl or trapped in a fridge drawer. And beware of fuzzy-covered fruit (and I don’t mean fuzzy like a peach). Fuzz that forms on aging fruit can quickly release spores that could infect neighboring produce and cause significant damage.
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| Warnings |
- Q: How was produce preserved before modern-day refrigeration?
A: Before the fridge, folks cooled their produce in spring water and stored it in “root cellars,” where the earthen walls insulated the space from the outside heat. People also consumed foods more quickly, as there were no processed foods or fast-food options.
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| Facts |
- Some produce, like bananas, can be picked green, and they’ll fully ripen over an extended period of time. Other types, like strawberries, must be picked when they’re fully ripe to ensure the maximum sugar accumulation in the fruit for peak consumer satisfaction.
- The science of prolonging fresh fruits and vegetables for maximum storage life is known as postharvest physiology.
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| Faqs |
- Q: I store all my vegetables in plastic zipper-type bags. Won’t that keep my produce fresh?
A: Actually, no. Sealing fruits or vegetables in plastic bags traps condensation, which can cause major spoilage problems.
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