Today’s question comes from Shannon:
I love fresh produce. I especially love getting it on sale. However, I can’t stock up for a month because it will go bad. How can I extend the life of my fresh produce? -Shannon
I’ve found that certain fruits–such as apples and citrus fruits–can keep in the refrigerator for up to 3-6 weeks. So when I find a good deal on a quality batch, I’ll often buy enough to last for the next two to four weeks.
Other fruits and vegetables don’t fare so well, but I often freeze those I’m able to buy them on a great sale. Chopped onions and green peppers freeze well and can be used in soups, stews, and casseroles once thawed. You can see my method for freezing tomatoes here.
Bananas and berries are exceptional when frozen and used in smoothies. I also often use frozen bananas in Banana Bread or muffins.
How do you extend the life of your fresh produce? Tell us about it in the comments.
Have a question you’d like me to pose for our weekly Ask the Readers feature? Email it to me and I’ll be glad to consider doing so.
Lots of wonderful tips on here, and it was interesting to see the same things pop up over and over. I linked to this on my weekly roundup, the post is under my name. Thanks!
Keeping fruit in a plastic bag helps prolong its life immensely. And it doesn’t have to be one of the expensive “green bags” – any old grocery bag will work!
I am a Tupperware consultant, and swear by my Tupperware Fridgesmart products! They keep berries and carrots fresh for so much longer than normal! They are definitely worth their price!
Don’t wash till you’re ready to use.
When you do wash produce, dry it REALLY WELL. Wet produce goes bad more quickly.
Use the special baggies for produce, they can double the life or longer. My old ones (not as good as the new versions) kept a head of romaine good for over a month.
Store items in the proper part of the fridge or counter. There’s a lot of into out there about this; Cook’s Illustrated and Consumer Reports are very reliable sources.
Herbs & scallions will last longer if you treat them like flowers: put in a cup of water.
If something’s about to go bad, cook it. That’ll extend the life of broccoli another week, onions another two weeks. If you still haven’t eaten it, freeze it (well labeled, of course).
When buying green onion from the store, I find bunches with the largest amount of root system. After I use the product, or even if I haven’t & it has wilted terribly, I plant it either indoors or outdoors & it comes back to life & lasts forever.
Here is a fabulous list of tips from farmer Monte http://www.lospoblanosorganics.
Citrus is best kept at room temperature of 60-70 degrees and used within two weeks. Do not store in plastic bags.
• Berries and Cherries are best covered in the fridge. Don’t wash until you use them – too much moisture in the package speeds spoilage.
• Avocados and Bananas are best stored and eaten at room temperature. Both will ripen with time. To speed ripening of green bananas store them in a paper bag with an apple in a warmish place. If they still don’t ripen after 1 week, they have been transported at a low temperature, and you might as well make chutney of them. If you don’t use the whole avocado in one sitting, store the remainder with the pit intact in a bag in the fridge – the pit will keep the fruit from discoloring
• Apples are best kept in the fridge, stored loose-they need to breathe to stay crisp. Use within a month.
• Eggplants, Potatoes, Onions, Winter Squash, Rutabagas, and Sweet Potatoes are best kept moderately cool, no lower than 50 degrees. A cool, dry dark place is best- on the counter, in a cupboard or basket.
• Apricots, Peaches, Pears, Nectarines, Mangoes, Kiwis, Plums and Melons should be ripened before refrigeration, stored in plastic bags when ripe. Melons should be used as soon as possible after ripening.
• Tomatoes should be kept uncovered at room temp, but can be refrigerated if very ripe. All other fresh vegetables belong in the refrigerator.
• Green Beans and Peas should be kept in plastic bags or containers. They’ll last 3-5 days in the fridge.
• Corn should be kept in its husk in the fridge. Eat it as soon as possible because its sugar quickly turns to starch, causing it to lose its flavor.
• Carrots, Radishes, Turnips, Beets, and Parsnips should be stored in plastic bags. They’ll last two weeks in the fridge. Take tops off carrots before storing, leave greens on radishes, turnips and beets, with both roots and tops in the bag.
• Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, Scallions, and Summer Squash will last 4-7 days in plastic bags in the crisper.
• Spinach, Kale, Chard, Lettuce, Salad Greens, and Cooking Greens have the same crisper life and should be kept in plastic bags. Any bunch greens can be freshened by cutting an inch of the bottom stalks and soaking the entire bunch in cold water for 10 minutes. Place in a plastic bag in the fridge for a few hours to revive.
• Peppers and Cucumbers should be stored in the crisper, and washed before use.
• Cauliflower, Fennel, Jerusalem Artichokes and Leeks wrap in plastic and use within a week.
• Cabbage and Celery have a fridge life of up to two weeks. Wrap celery in plastic.
• Parsley and Cilantro are best with bottoms of stems trimmed, placed upright in a jar of water in the fridge. Basil can be stored upright in a jar of water at room temperature, or in an open bag on the counter. These three all do well frozen also (they will loose texture but not taste).
• Thyme and Rosemary should be stored in the fridge in bags for up to a week, after that they can be brought out onto the counter to dry. Dry herds should be stored tightly in a jar.
• Asparagus is delicate and should be used within 2-3 days, wrap in a damp towel and store in plastic bags or bins.
• Mushrooms do well kept in a cool, dark place in a bag. Do not wash until ready to use.
• Ginger will keep in the fridge for a week or two, but for longer term should be frozen in a bag or jar. You can easily grate the root direct from the freezer.
Even if I freeze bananas after they go past the point of no return – you know dark brown. When I take them out to use them in banana bread, I find that the banana bread is easier to mix up and turns out better! (more moist)
Hey,
Great ideas. I’d never thought to go to walmart and McD’s for coupons on those particular days.
Thanks again,
Guy
For years I have been taking overly ripe bananas and placing them in my freezer. Sometimes they go in as a whole banana, sometimes just the banana itself in a freezer bag. What do I do with these bananas . . . use them for breakfast! A common weekend breakfast is banana pancakes or waffles sometimes with chocolate chips or even blueberries. Those who have tried them, love them! A really great batch of banana pancakes or waffles are judged by whether or not they have enough banana flavor to not require maple syrup!
Several ways:
Debbie’s green bags ARE amazing, as are the Ziploc Fresh-Extend bags.
For garden-fresh lettuce, I usually line the veggie drawer with paper towels and put ONLY my garden lettuce in that drawer.
For berries, what you don’t use in one day, FREEZE!!! They last forever!
Bananas, I found the best recipe. This recipe is sooooo good. I made them wrong the first time and they were still amazing!!! Great for that .89 cream cheese, too!!!
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1017307
I invested in the Debbie Meyer Green bags for produce and they really do work. I would suggest them to anyone.
♥ Joy
When I bring celery home from the store, I rinse it well, getting water into the center, then turning it upside-down to drain. When dry, I put it in a clean bread sack. Leave the bag open in the fridge. It keeps very well.
Sharon
I’ve used Debbie Meyer GreenBoxes. They make my bread, tomatoes and strawberries last longer and NO MOLD! 🙂
http://kitchen-dining.hsn.com/debbie-meyer-lockin-greenboxes-4-piece-29-cup-completer-set_p-5647268_xp.aspx?webm_id=0&web_id=5647268&sf=qc&dept=qc0273&ocm=qc|qc0273&prev=hp!sf!dept&ccm=qc|qc0273
CHEAP WAYS THAT WORK: Wrap a head of lettuce in a paper towel or two and then put in a plastic bag getting out all the air that’s possible. This will definitely help lettuce to last and not turn brown.
Wrap cucumbers individually in newspaper, put them in the crisper, they last much longer.
Celery inside a plastic bag and then wrapped in aluminum foil keeps much longer. It can also be cut and froze for use in cooking.
Apples and potatoes should never be stored together. The starch in potatoes will turn to a sugar. Keep them in separate corners of a basement if you have a cool storage area. Onions will keep all winter long there also. Oranges and grapefruit also, they do not have to be refrigerated if you have a cool basement.
Wow, lots of great tips!
I do 2 things, I don’t wash more fruit or veggies than I am going to use in the next couple days. And when I do wash veggies I put a piece of paper towel in the bag with them (and I always do that with lettuce).
I really love the Rubbermaid Produce Savers. I can extend the life of my strawberries by about 2 weeks with this container; they stay so much fresher and I feel like I waste so much less of my fruits and veggies. The Rubbbermaid website had $1 off coupons not too long ago also, which makes it even better
@Rhonda M., Thanks for the tip on the $1 coupon on Rubbermaid’s website. It was still there. I printed one and got the middle sized container this morning at Meijer after reading these comments.
Oh – I also have the Tupperware FridgeSmarts and they rock!
Sorry about writing the ‘book’ I wrote in the earlier comment!
🙂
Lea
I shop every other week, and I plan my menus strategically so that the easily perishable produce is used the first week, while the second week relies more on long-lasting fruits and veggies such as apples and carrots, as well as non-perishables such as canned goods.
Keep them dry! Go through your produce every few days to get rid of or use up anything that’s getting past its prime.
I make my own frozen veggies by blanching and freezing the veggies I buy in bulk at the farmer’s market. To blanch you simply cook your veggies in boiling water for 1-5 mintues depending on the veggie, pull them out and dunk into cold water to stop the cooking and then freeze (I use ziplocs for that). You can do this with most veggies – I regularly do corn, carrots, broccoli, beans, cauliflour, and peas. I then used the boiled water to make vegetable stock for soup and cooking and the cold ‘dunk’ water for watering the garden outside (so I don’t waste the water). I have a blanching pot (much like a double boiler) but you can use any size pot and either a slotted spoon or a collander.
I also have a dehydrator and freeze fruit (berries, bananas, peaches) and make applesauce and pear sauce. Usually I can find great deals on in-season produce – either at the farmer’s market, pick your own, or at the store – and this lets us extend them for use all year round. I have bought 1 bag of frozen fruit (free with coupons!) in the last 3 years and rarely buy frozen veggies or dried banana, cranberries or pineapple. I make my own raisins in the dehydrator too.
Cheers,
Lea
I didn’t think that onions would freeze very well, but I took the chance and I took about 6 large onions and chopped them all because they looked like they were getting close to going bad. They’ve lasted me over two months when normally I would buy onions at least every two weeks (cause some would always go bad).
I also took one onion that looked to be already going bad and forgot about it (ontop of the fridge) and soon it had sprouted. I stuck it in a tall glass jar with water and now I use the tall green sprouts as green onions/chives!
For herbs, I have diced them up and put them in ice cube trays with a little water. Then pop them out and put in freezer bags. So much better than dried herbs and I can never use up fresh herbs before they go bad.
Pesto! Pesto is a term for a type of sauce, not just for basil puree. Whenever I have leftover/going limp leaves of herbs or spinach I make a pesto and freeze it in ice cube trays. We love spinach/walnut pesto, I’ve also used cilantro, parsley, and any kind of nut or even once sunflower seeds instead of the nuts. We don’t eat dairy due to an allergy, so leave out the cheese, but you could put cheese in or not. Then I freeze the pesto in an ice cube tray. Pop it into a ziplock the next morning so it doesn’t take up space and keep it in the freezer. It’s handy for a quick pizza or pasta dinner when you’re short on time! Plus is keeps you from wasting fresh herbs, which are often pricey!
We had to buy a new refrigerator when we moved and we must have gotten lucky, because the bottom drawer keeps vegetables fresh for a long, long time.
I wish I could find a way to keep organic potatoes longer. Since they aren’t chemically treated like nonorganic potatoes, they tend to sprout and get shrivelly within a couple weeks of buying them. Although it’s worth it to know that my family isn’t ingesting all those chemicals, it makes it tough to stock up on them when they’re on sale. Maybe I need to build an old-fashioned root cellar? 🙂
@Courtney,
Even non-organic potatoes last well in the right temperature. I guest posted about this today over at Good & Cheap Eats. http://www.goodcheapeats.com/2010/04/humble-spud-pantry-staple-guest-post.html A root cellar IS ideal, but it’s not the only way to go!
@The Prudent Homemaker, Thank you for the helpful information! I have always read that you shouldn’t store potatoes in the refrigerator because the starch converts to sugar and makes them taste sweet – but if it works for you, then I’ll give it a try. We have a second fridge in the basement which would be an ideal spot to store them.
@Courtney, I think it helps to keep knocking the sprouts off as soon as you notice them. I have also had success planting sprouty organic potatos in my garden (minus the sprout free center.
@Chris, Thanks, I think I’ll try planting some in our garden this spring 🙂
My friend Sherri taught me to freeze my tomatoes whole and rinse them under hot water to remove the skins when I am ready to use them. Now I grow mostly roma tomatoes for soups because the size is perfect for thawing and using. Question: how do I freeze green peppers without having everything (especially ice and ice cream) taste like green peppers?
Carmen
@carmen, Are you putting them in a freezer bag. If they are in a freezer bag (not a regular ziplock bag), it should lock in the taste/smell. If not, you can try double bagging.
@Ann B, Yes, I have used freezer bags and double bagging thank you for your input.
These Rubbermaid containers work really well for fruit…..
http://tinyurl.com/y2ff85y
Crystal – thanks so much for this post. I’ve learned lots of new ideas for preserving items to last us longer. We have some serious deals right now on strawberries (I’m in So Cal) and a few other fruits. This will be great.
Dehydrator! And also smoothies. You can use just about any kind of produce. Look up “green smoothies” to help you polish off salad greens! They’re actually pretty yummy.
I learned recently that you can put a bunch of green onions in a glass/jar/cup and cover the roots with water…loosely cover the tops with a plastic bag and they keep for at least 2 weeks or more.
I use the Rubbermaid ProduceSavers for lettuce and berries. They work really well. You can find them in most grocery stores.
@Erin, This is what I use. The green bags didn’t seem to work for me, so I started looking for somethign else. I picked up a couple of these when they were half-price at the grocery store, and used coupons. I was so thrilled with how well the strawverries kept, that I went back and bought more at full price!!!
Here’s what I do to save the life of my produce…not totally frugal but sometimes you have to splurge to save money for a worthwhile investment….I bought The Debbie Meyer Greenboxes and green bags from Home Shopping Network (my first time buying from HSN) to preserve the life of my fresh produce, breads, and cheese. THEY WORK WELL and with garden produce season coming it’s WELL worth the investment of $50 including shipping!
Check out my post on how I save $$ in the kitchen.
http://designingandmotherhood.blogspot.com/2010/02/stacis-frugal-practical-waysrevealed.html
Where do you all buy these Tupperware Fridgesmarts? Are they sold in stores, or do you have to buy them from someone who sells the Tupperware brand?
@Emily,
Here is a link: http://order.tupperware.com/coe/app/tup_show_item.show_item_detail?fv_item_category_code=18002&fv_item_number=P10056908000
I’ve purchased one, but am saving for more! They work really great!
@jaclyn, if you go to the site and find a consultant in your area and ask themn to keep you posted on fridgesmart sales, they usually go on sale (big sets) for 40-75% off from now through the middle to end summer. If the set is too big for you, split it with a friend. Just tell them up front exactly what you are and are not interested in (ie if you dont want a party) and most consultants will honor that. If you meet one who does not honor your request, just look up another one nearby.
@Emily, The fridgesmart containers are AWESOME. I have 3 and wish I had more in the peak of gardening season. You can buy online at Tupperware’s website, from a dealer, on garage sales and also on Ebay. They really are worth it — great for fruits AND veggies. I also use mine as a bread-keeper for homemade bread. So many uses!
I also love the Green Bags – many stores have lowered their prices on them recently, too. They work lettuce & other greens. I second the comment about keeping the produce dry in them, though.
One thing we do with fruit is freeze any that’s going to get too ripe before we eat it. Then I make smoothies with it – throw the frozen fruit in the blender with vanilla yogurt and a little milk if it’s too thick to drink. My kids all love them – even the one that doesn’t like most fresh fruit or veggies.
Once it’s frozen, it’s not so great for just eating, but thawed berries make great ice cream or pancake topping or just about any frozen fruit is good in a baked cobbler or a crumble. (And about as quick and easy as it gets for a baked dessert!)
Strawberries stay fresh for up to two weeks in a glass jar. Sounds odd… but it’s really true.
I have a great year round farm stand nearby and always overbuy when I go… So I bought the Debbie Meyer Green Bags a about 18months ago and am hooked. We had a salad last night from 6 week old lettuce!
Also, all the apples you are buying are stored in “cold storage” (I live in WA state) so everyone here keeps their apples, pears, potatoes, onions, squash, etc in their garage (use separate boxes). Similiar to a root cellar our grandparents used. If kept cool, they will last months…
I buy organic celery-the cost is not that much higher and it stays fresher much longer than regular celery. If it does go limp before it’s used, a quick bath in cold water perks it right up.
Ditto on the wrapping celery in foil. It really works!
And ditto also on the Tupperware fridge smart containers. They help salad and lettuce last so much longer!
For potatoes, if you put an apple in with them ( i keep them in a drawer) it helps keep them from forming eyes. Not sure how that works, but it does! It wastes the apple though cuz the apple seems to shrivel.
Salad spinner for lettuce really helps extend its life, plus it makes it so much easier to clean it. A head of lettuce is much cheaper than buying the bagged stuff, and tastes a lot better.
We use both the Debbie Meyer Green Bags and the Hefty FreshExtend. They work well for us, you just have to follow the directions and make sure you keep the produce DRY, and when it gets wet, take it out and wipe it down. We buy produce every other week and it usually lasts 2 weeks (plus) in the bags. (for the stuff like cauliflower we don’t eat often!)
I have good luck wrapping celery in tinfoil, it last for weeks this way. Carrots, onions and potatoes all last a long time as well. The key, I think, is to get a variety of produce, eating the quick to go bad stuff first and working your way to the lasts a long time stuff.
I store red onions wrapped (individually) in aluminum foil in the crisper drawer in the refrigerator & they keep much longer.
Want to lengthen the life of really ripe fruit that needs to be used like, “right now”? Dehydrate it! Yes, it is an initial investment…..but between that and your freezer, no bad fruit needs to be thrown out! And, ripe, dehydrated fruit is soooooo incredibly yummy! No sweetener needed for that! So, I saved up money, for I saw it as an investment in our health and will save us money in the long run!
@Joy Yelton, You can usually find dehydrators at garage sales and auctions. My mom has two that she bought for only a few dollars each. If you can’t find a dehydrator cheaply though you can dehydrate things in the oven. Just do an internet search and you can probably find all the info you would need about using the oven this way.
I just tried this: http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/skinny-secrets/salad-in-a-jar
I’m sold. My lettuce lasted 2 weeks and was ready to eat at anytime.
I had some celery go limp on me, and I had read in one of my kids library science books that if you cut off the base and place all the celery in a glass of water with a little sugar, it will be like fresh in twenty four hours…I tried and it worked! Of course how much nutriants are lost at that point I’m not sure, but it worked well in a pinch:)
@Princess,
I store my celery wrapped in aluminum foil & that really extends the life & keeps it crisp.
My mom introduced us to green bags and they really seem to work. We have had mushrooms in a green bag for 2 weeks and they look like we just bought them….its great!
My great aunt, who has a bountiful garden and lots of wisdom, packs me some of her berries in a sealed container with paper towels. She layers the berries and the paper towels so that the towels absorb the moisture. The berries keep in the fridge for several weeks that way. You can use the same method for leftover (undressed) salad. Put it in a ziploc bag with a paper towel and it will stay fresh for a week without getting mushy or brown.
P.S. can you freeze strawberries? how do you do it?
@jan, I do it all the time….I just take off the stem, etc. and then put it all in a Ziploc and freeze them that way. Or if I’d rather have them sliced and in sugar for later, I prepare them like that and freeze them. I’ve never had any trouble freezing strawberries.
@Pamela,
I freeze them also, but I crush them with a potato masher. There isn’t a texture change that way.
@jan, Fishmama has a picture tutorial here:
http://www.goodcheapeats.com/2009/04/how-to-store-berries.html
I’ve done this before and it works great for all blueberries, strawberries and blackberries.
@jan,
Take off the stems, wash them and pat dry with paper towel. Then line a cookie sheet with waxed paper, place the berries on the waxed paper, and put in the freezer for a couple hours till they freeze. Then put them in a ziploc bag and back into the freezer. I just tried this for the first time after finding quarts of strawberries on sale at Meijer for $1. They froze great…..but haven’t used any yet.
I got the Green Bags on clearence and now I see why- they don’t work at all.
@jan,
I’ve had great results with GreenBags, esp. lettuce in the fridge (it will last a month or more) and broccoli. They’re not great for bananas, though.
My mother taught me this one about lettuce and I use the method for my garden lettuce in the summer as well. If you are using garden lettuce make sure you water it before picking, it’ll hold up longer that way.
Wash all your lettuce in a cool clean bath of water, wrap in a flour sack by bringing all the edges together to form a sort of handle. (I’m not a big fan of having a million kitchen gadgets so this is an economical alternative to a salad spinner). Since this method can make a bit of a mess I take the towel wrapped lettuce into the bathroom and swing it around and around over the tub. This will get out most of the water. Then you do just what Julie suggested, place the lettuce in a large zip bag with paper towels. I like to put some on the bottom, in the middle and on the top. It really will extend the life of your lettuce.
If you are using this method with Herbs make sure that you wrap up the more delicate herbs (like Basil) completely in paper towel after doing the rinse/ spin step. Otherwise the Basil will wilt and turn black within a day.
At the end of the summer when I have a lot of Herbs I’ll chop them up and mix them into a bunch of soft butter. Having extra ice cube trays on hand is never a bad thing. I have ice cube trays set aside for such projects. Divide the butter among the trays and freeze. Once frozen place the bottom of the trays into a warm bath of water. Pop out your herb butter and place in zip bags. You’ll now have herbed butter for the rest of the winter! Just take a block out of the freezer when you need it!
When berries hit their rock bottom prices for the season I buy a bunch and freeze them. This works best for blueberries, though strawberries do well when frozen in syrup. Then we can have fresh berries (or for muffins) for much of the year! I also freeze as many $0.50 post-Thanksgiving bags of cranberries I can get my hands on.
During the summer we freeze grapes, pineapple, strawberries, sliced banana and oranges for cold frozen treats. My kids LOVE them. They are great to throw in your ice chest for a long day at soccer fields or other outdoor events. I can’t keep my kids out of frozen fruit duing the summer!!
I also use the Green Bags. They really do work, though not quite as well as the commercial might lead you to believe!
That is so true Tupperware fridgesmarts work the best. I bought asparagus at the 99 cent only store 3 weeks ago. it was just as fresh as the day I bought it. if I left it in the bag it goes bad with in 3 days.
They are a great money saving tool!
frozen bananas make great fake ice cream too (try a google search on one-ingrediant ice cream) for kids and vegans.
Avocados keep well in the fridge too, but that doesn’t work so well if you’re trying to ripen them quickly! Potatoes fare better when seperated from onions and removed from their bag (I keep mine in cardboard in the the pantry, they keep for weeks!)
I use the website http://www.stilltasty.com that has lots of hints and tips on freezing things and how long most foods last.
I absolutely love the Debbie Meyer Green Bags for produce. There was a promo a while back where I got a package for free and they have been awesome. You can wash them and reuse them several times and they really do keep produce fresher A LOT longer!
@Rachel @ Surviving The Stores, I also use these for fresh broccoli and peppers. Do you use them for fruit as well? I haven’t tried.
@Emily, Yep! I use them for strawberries, blueberries, lettuce pretty much everything! Well, everything except bananas because my kids TEAR through bananas and they don’t have a chance to turn bad. 🙂
@Rachel @ Surviving The Stores,
I use the DM bags for all produce!
I love them!
@Rachel @ Surviving The Stores, I agree with Rachel here. I was VERY skeptical that a bag could make a difference, but it is unbelievable. My bananas last so much longer in here, and my tomatoes can last three weeks without looking any different than when I purchased them!
@Rachel @ Surviving The Stores, I cannot stand when bananas start to brown…these bags make them last SO much longer! Definitely worth the small investment!
@Rachel @ Surviving The Stores, I agree–the Green Bags make a big difference for me! I too was skeptical, but they work really well.
@Rachel @ Surviving The Stores, Is it reusable?
@Prathee Selvam, Yep, they are! We have washed and reused our bags SEVERAL times and they still work great. I’m sure after a while they will need to be replaced, but one package seems to last a long time.
I do a lot of the same stuff. For my fresh herbs, spinach, & lettuces, (like romaine,) I wash & dry them asap and wrap them in paper towels then stick in a zipper bag. I squeeze out all of the air and then put them in the fridge. They last 2-3 weeks that way.
@Julie, This does work really well. If you have a “paperless” kitchen then you can also use a dish towel instead of the paper towel. I think the floursack style towel (smooth texture rather than terry) works better but I don’t know that for sure.
Honestly, I swear by my Tupperware Fridge Smart containers. My strawberries last for weeks in there!
@HaLee,
I totally agree!! They may seem a little pricey up front, but your produce stays fresh forever. Plus, they’re lifetime guaranteed since they’re from Tupperware.
I am using the Fridgesmart but notice that all my fruits are extremely wet. Is that normal?
@HaLee, I agree! You can goto tupperware.com and find a consultant in your area. Just tell them you are interested in FridgeSmart but only if it’s at least 40% off. They usually run specials this time of year and all summer long with sets of FridgeWmart for 40-75% off.
@HaLee, same here on the fridgesmart. I love them. another tip, you can find lots of tupperware on sale at amazon for less than buying directly. fridgesmart is definately worth the money, they have 2 vents to give the food the right amount of air and a chart to tell you how to use the vents
Thumbs up on the Tupperware FridgeSmart – I was skeptical but it really works — I was AMAZED how long my lettuce, celery, herbs, berries, etc stayed fresh.
@jen, They recently came out with some larger ones too that are great for bigger pieces of fruit. If you accidentally let something mold in them, wash with hot water and vinegar to kill the mold or else your fruits & veggies will not last as long.
I agree with that also. Worth the investment.!!!!
Lettuce, strawberries, etc. last a very long time.