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Waste-Free Onion Storage

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I post a picture and just a few words.

I store uncut onions outside of the fridge (my cold laundry room is perfect for this!).

But once they’re partially cut, I store them in the fridge, and for a while, I couldn’t figure out how to do this in a waste-free way, mainly because onions are so odiferous.

A disposable plastic bag creates waste, so I prefer not to do that, but putting the onions in a reusable container made the lid stink, even after trips through the dishwasher.

So, I’ve been storing my cut onions in a glass mason jar (This is a wide-mouth pint jar, which I find to be a really handy size.)

waste-free onion storage

And the onions DO make the lid stink-there is no question about that. That’s why I used a sharpie to label the lid, which means I will never make the mistake of using it on some other kind of food.

store onion in mason jar

(Remember when I accidentally used an onion lid to make yogurt??)

If you wanted to store an onion for a long time, this wouldn’t work because it’s not air-tight enough to keep the onion from drying out.   But I use onions almost every day, and so mine never live in the Mason jar for long.

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Joshua’s 52 post: Ninja

(Fair warning: it’s a spider.   But it’s kind of a cute one, and it totally looks like it’s wearing a ninja mask.)

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Kelly

Friday 28th of March 2014

William B- Pickle jars in my house get a quick wash and then I use them to hold food scraps. When I prep dinner I pull it out of the freezer and add my non compostable food scraps to it and then back into the freezer until full (put out in trash the night before trash day). I don't have a disposal and I don't want my trash to attrach animals so this option of acctually being able to use my stiny jars is perfect. See your room mates pickle jars can be useful!

Maria Ehlers

Wednesday 19th of March 2014

I dice extra onion and freeze it on a plastic lid, then add it to a recycled Parmesan cheese jar in my freezer. When I want diced onion fast, I just shake some out.

Rachel

Wednesday 12th of March 2014

Whenever I only use part of an onion I dice up the rest and put it in a zip lock bag in the freezer and use it the next time I need cooked diced onion (ground beef, spaghetti sauce etc.) No onion smell that way and I won't forget about the onion and end up throwing it away later! But for red onion I do store it in the fridge. How long is onion good in the fridge after it's been cut?

Liz @ Economies of Kale

Wednesday 12th of March 2014

Great idea - I usually use a bowl and put it face down, but it can still make the fridge smell and also dry out.

SandyH

Tuesday 11th of March 2014

Boy I made a mistake when I bought "Debbie Meyer Green Boxes". Apart from making my vegetable drawer look organized(which I was never able to achieve, in all these years of trying, when I stored my produce in plastic bags) they simply DO NOT WORK as advertised. I was sucked in by the infomercial like everyone else. So what am I doing wrong here? And what the heck was I expecting anyway, they're just plastic containers like all the rest. Sheesh.

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