Some years ago, I wrote about how to make broccoli, strawberries, and bananas last longer. The post was originally a sponsored one, so it was in an out-of-the-way spot on my blog. Everyone is trying to stretch the time between their grocery trips these days, so I thought it deserved a republish.
Since I’m always trying to reduce the food waste at my house, I tried out a couple of food storage methods and I’m here to report on how that went.
Vinegar Wash for Berries
The rinsing-berries-with-a-vinegar-wash thing?
Brilliant.
It is truly astounding how much longer berries keep after a vinegar rinse. Even things like raspberries and blackberries stay firm and fresh for days upon days.
And they don’t taste a thing like vinegar, either.
To do this, mix up 3 cups of water and a cup of vinegar (fortunately, vinegar is dirt cheap, so this is an inexpensive fruit wash.).
Give the berries a soak for a few minutes.
Drain the berries and place them in a salad spinner lined with a tea towel (the original directions said to use a paper towel, which is compostable, but hey, I like to avoid waste when I can!).
Give them a spin…
And place them back into their original container.
If you were lucky enough to buy berries without a package, you can put them into a reusable storage container.
I wouldn’t seal them, though, as berries do best if they can breathe.
Best Broccoli Storage
Remember the broccoli bag I was poking holes in last month, so broccoli would keep longer?
Well.
I sort of accidentally gave that a really, really good test. The broccoli sat in my fridge for, um, an entire month.
And I am pleased to say that it was only slightly worse for the wear.
I’m super impressed with how well this worked.
Although I don’t really recommend that you store broccoli for a month if you can help it.
Ahem.
I rinsed my bag out, hung it up to dry, and I’ll definitely use it again next time.
Banana Storage Tips
I don’t really feel like any of these are silver bullets, partly because bananas seem to be a very fickle fruit when it comes to ripening.
Thank goodness there’s banana bread and banana muffins!
But, here are a few ideas to try.
- Separate your bananas at the stems (I do this pretty regularly)
- Wrap the top stem in plastic wrap (I rarely have plastic wrap around, so I don’t practice this one. You can see that the organic bananas above come with plastic on the stems.)
- When the bananas are the perfect ripeness, put them in the fridge. The skin will turn brown, but the actual banana’s ripening will be paused.
- If you have too many perfectly ripe bananas at one time, slice and freeze them for smoothie use.
So.
- Wash your berries with a 3/1 water to vinegar mixture.
- Store your broccoli in a hole-y ziploc bag.
- Try a bunch of things with your bananas. You will probably end up with spotty bananas anyway, and then you can make banana bread. Ha.
Do you have any tips about how to keep specific kinds of produce fresh? I’d love to hear!
Ruth T says
Asparagus does well if you stand them up in a cup with an inch or so of water in it.
Kristen says
Yes! I often do this.
Diane says
I have found that celery keeps for much longer if you remove it from the plastic bag it comes in and tightly wrap it in foil!!
Also, iceberg lettuce keeps longer in you unwrap it, remove any brown or damaged outer leaves, then store it in a Ziploc bag with one folded, SLIGHTLY damp, sheet of paper towel.
Denise says
I always put my bananas in two plastic bags before they go in the frig. This keeps them pretty close to normal color even after a week.
Barb F. says
I tried putting the bananas in “isolation” and wrappedstems with saran wrap. Didn’t work, they still turned spotty.
Heidi Louise says
And speaking of frozen fruit, frozen green grapes are very tasty. I “make” some if I can’t eat the brunch of grapes fast enough.
Heidi Louise says
“Bunch,” not “Brunch,” of grapes.
Though I could enjoy an all fruit brunch, if someone else did all the prep work.
Ruth says
I buy the baby carrots in a bag at the store. I’ve found that if you keep the bag closed, the carrots get slimy in a week or so.
Now, when I get home, I immediately open the bag WIDE and put it in the crisper drawer. The top carrots will get dry on the surface, but they are fine. They package those carrots with way too much water. I can keep carrots at least a month this way.
Yvette says
I keep my leaf lettuce in my salad spinner. It’s amazing how much longer it lasts.
FrankieGirl says
On the banana thing… freeze them in slices and then use them in smoothies for sure, but they are even better just as they are – try eating frozen banana slices all by themselves. They taste like little dollops of banana ice cream. Whole frozen bananas (plain or dipped into chocolate and then insert a popsicle stick) used to be a treat at amusement parks.
We intentionally buy large bunches to freeze and eat. I just wait for them to get ripe, peel them and compost the peels, then slice and place on wax paper and a cookie sheet and pop into the freezer. Once they’re frozen, we put them into a lidded bowl and keep them frozen and eat on them throughout the week.
They are also heavenly on top of a bowl of cereal (really elevates the humble corn flake into something amazing). You can fix up your cereal as you like it, and finish up with a half dozen or so of the frozen banana slices.
It’s like little bites of ice cream without all the refined sugar.
Kristen says
Yes! Frozen banana slices are tasty on their own. So creamy.
MB in MN says
Love this idea! Thank you for the inspiration.
Helen D says
So, I read an article about this very thing last summer (helping produce last longer) and they specifically tested strawberries. They used all the methods the vinegar&water rinse and others. However, their winning advice was to NOT rinse anything, but to instead just place the items in a mason jar & seal with the lid & refrigerate. I have since tried this with numerous produce items and have found that it truly does extend the life of the item(s) from strawberries to blackberries to grape tomatoes or even cut avocados. It does however take up more room in your fridge, but I’ve found that it’s very much worth that minor inconvenience.
Jan says
My go to food science guru is Kenji Lopez Alt of Serious Eats. He has a blog page on preserving fresh produce here https://www.seriouseats.com/2013/05/the-food-lab-preserve-spring-summer-produce.html I’ve used his Tip #5 for preserving fresh berries many times and it really works. The berries are dipped in hot water (120 – 130 degrees F) for 30 seconds. I dry them by tossing them in a kitchen towel (a dark color as they can stain the towel!) and then letting them air dry for about 30 minutes before putting them in a container. They really do last longer. I prefer this to vinegar and it seems to work better.
When we have too many strawberries, I toss them in the freezer or slice them with an egg slicer and dry them in my dehydrator. Blueberries freeze great, BTW. I wash them, dry them well, and toss into freezer bags. The more delicate berries lose some texture if frozen and they don’t survive the hot water as well.
Denise says
If you put blueberries straight in the freezer with out washing, they stay perfectly loose. When your ready to use them, pull out what you need and then wash.
Corrine says
If your carrots start to get limp, place then in a small amount of water and put in the refrigerator. It crisps them right up!
Emilymb says
Put your avocados in the fridge as soon as they get a bit soft and they will stay ripe and fresh for days and days!
MB in MN says
Thank you for the vinegar tip! That’s a new one for me. Last year I learned of another game-changer for keeping greens fresh: http://www.carmellarayone.com/blog/2019/08/30-simple-living-storing-fresh-greens-ezxyr. Shortly after reading that blog post, I walked into a vintage store and found the exact enamel bin. The universe definitely aligned on that one!
Kristen says
Wow, what a great coincidence for you!
Bobi says
Placing a napkin or paper towel in bagged spinach or salad keeps them fresh much longer. When the greens are finally gone, you can dry out the napkin or towel and reuse.
Diane C says
I love Debbie Meyers Green Bags for storing produce of all kinds. I happened to buy a new package at TJMaxx earlier this year and I am so glad I did. Amazon is probably the best way to get them now. They’re not expensive, they can be reused many times, and they pay for themselves very quickly. Stops food waste, and minimizes shopping trips, for the win. I even use them for avocados. Yes, they’re amazing.
Kristen says
I’ve never tried these! How long do the bags last? Does the ethylene blocker start to not work over time?
Diane C says
They’re kind of like socks. Somehow they disappear one by one. I do know that I use them over and over until the last one’s gone, which usually takes quite a while.
Kristin says
Kristen, thanks for the tips!
I have a question about the broccoli. I get my produce through a delivery service similar to your Hungry Harvest, so it doesn’t come in packaging. But if I put the broccoli in a holey ziploc, it’ll stay better than if it’s just loose?
Another idea for overripe bananas is to mix with some peanut butter and a little cocoa powder and freeze. It’s a sort of ice-creamy cold treat. I’ve also put overripe bananas and PB in oatmeal. The cocoa, too sometimes!
Kristen says
Yes, I definitely think that broccoli stays fresher in the holey ziploc. Mine often gets kind of wilty and limp if it’s left uncontained.
Ruth says
I sometimes mash up bananas with peanut butter, cocoa, a little sugar, and Grape Nuts or Fiber One cereal and freeze. I cut it into bars when it’s about half frozen and store in a container. They’re really tasty and I used to eat them for breakfast.
It’s actually an ancient Weight Watchers recipe from the 70s!
Nan says
Thanks for the tip on the vinegar water. I have some mesh produce bags I use for broccoli- they work great and I know I have some 2 week old broccoli in there I need to use. BTW I had my first Kohlrabi- it came in my produce delivery and was quite tasty. It was sweet and roasted easily after I peeled and sliced. I’ll definitely buy it in the future.
Maureen says
I remember reading this years ago and have referenced this page a few times over the last month- hopefully from here on out I can now remember the 3:1 solution! Perhaps a post pulling together a bunch of your food preservation techniques would be helpful as we all extend our time between grocery trips?
(Longtime reader, rare commenter, but I love your blog!)
Carla says
I realize this is an older post but I thought you might like to hear my broccoli saving method. When you bring it home from the store cut off a sliver from the end and store it with that end down in a few inches of water. Put a plastic bag over the broccoli and the container the end is in, and pop it into the fridge. That’s it. It stays beautifully crisp and hard, and it takes much, much longer to go bad.
Effie says
I do this too-treating broccoli like a flower works great for me; it lasts much better that way (here in the UK it’s mainly sold loose). I change the water every 3-4 days.
Janknitz says
Another trick to make berries last longer is to plunge them in hot (120 degree) water for 30 seconds. Hot water comes out of my tap at 120 degrees, so no water heating required. This seems to kill any mold spores. But the vinegar soak seems pretty easy, too.
As for the broccoli, I got a set of reusable fine mesh produce bags. I bought them because they were less expensive than nutsmilk bags and I use them for making coconut milk and almond milk at home (homemade nut milks are very frugal–I dehydrate the resulting pulp and use it as nut/coconut flour– and you can control the ingredients, BTW). I wonder if the mesh bags would work for broccoli? The purchased ones are probably too small for a big head of broccoli–but they can be easily made with a sewing machine (which is what I should have done in the first place to be perfectly frugal–sigh).
Kristen says
Unfortunately, when I’ve stored broccoli in mesh bags, it gets kind of wilty. Like rubbery almost?
Sarah says
Kristin! A better way to save bananas (I learned from my mother in law) is to separate all of them so they’re no longer touching. It’s because there’s some type of chemical in them, that when one starts to ripen it spreads to the other stalks; causing them to go bad faster. I’ve tried this and it has worked wonders!
Kristen says
Ok…now I need to try that along with the cling wrap trick and a few control bananas. I’ll have to buy a super huge bunch!
Laura says
My sister separates her bananas to make them last longer. I guess they put off a gas that speeds the ripening process, so separating them slows that down.
Elizabeth says
I started doing this and it totally works for me! It’s a minor pain because the bananas end up taking up more space in my very small kitchen, but no one in my house likes banana bread so I really hate letting bananas get too brown.
Christine says
Unfortunatley the broccoli link didn’t seem to work. Can you repost that info?
Also, I’ve been trying to find a way to keep my cucumbers fresher longer as they always seem to get soft and slimey before I can use them up (in less than a week!) Any tips for fresh cucumbers?
Kimberly says
My tip is: Steer clear if Aldi cucumbers.
They go bad SO much quicker than others–within a few days, even in the fridge.
Katie says
I haven’t heard of this tip before. Thanks for testing it out
I will have to try it out. Once berries are back in season in Wisconsin that is.
Denise Wall says
You mentioned rinsing, drying, and reusing your holey broccoli bag. I have reused bags this way for years but recently learned from an experienced farmer’s wife that I can reuse the wax bags cereal comes in. I simply shake out the dry cereal crumbs, no washing and drying necessary. I roll down the top and clip them with a clothes pin or add a bit of tape. They are nice and sturdy and since I have new ones coming in fairly regularly I usually don’t need to reuse them twice which means I’m not drying bags all over my kitchen anymore.
Angela says
I use cereal bags for the bread that I bake. Only place in bag when cold though. Really keeps the bread good.
Angela
Holly says
Awesome! I get SO bummed at losing pricey produce.
I’m gonna get huge cartons of berries from Costco willy-nilly now. My husband usually leaves berries for me and the kids since we love the and only get 2 days or so a week on’em. I will be buying enough for the week.
Carla says
What if you don’t have a salad spinner? I assume that is just to get the berries dry; can you just pat them down with the towel?
Kristen says
Yep, you could certainly do that. And to make sure they’re dry, you could leave them out in the air for a bit.
Karen Wyman says
Can the vinegar wash be used on other fruits? Like apples, oranges and bananas? Also what about vegetable ? Thank you.
Kristen says
I think you could use it on whatever you want, but oranges and bananas have such thick skins, they’re not very prone to rot like berries. I also don’t usually have trouble with apples growing mold.
Tomatoes could be a good candidate, though.
WilliamB says
I use vinegar wash on all produce that I don’t peel. There are those who recommend washing produce you cut, such as melons, so the knife doesn’t drag bacteria into the flesh but I think that’s alarmist: even in countries where the advice is “Don’t eat anything you didn’t peel or cut yourself” don’t warn about knife-dragged bacteria.
maria says
I have gotten away from rinsing my fruit and veggies with vinegar. Since berries always wilt a bit when wet, I never thought to wash them in vinegar with the rest of my fruit. I’ll hafta give it a try now.
Liz @ Economies of Kale says
That’s really good to know about the berries. I’ve read that rinsing fruit and veg in vinegar also can get rid of pesticide residue, so that’s another good thing about using it, especially because berries are on the Dirty Dozen list.
Dawn says
Hi Liz,
Actually, vinegar is not any more effective against pesticide residue than is water. The reason that berries are on the Dirty Dozen list isn’t just that they’re so heavily sprayed, but that the pesticides are so easily absorbed through the skin, especially with strawberries. It’s really best to buy organic berries if at all possible. It’s my job to know this, so you can trust me on this one. However, vinegar is an antibacterial agent, so rinsing the berries in this vinegar wash will help kill any surface bacteria from wastes or being handled with germy hands during picking/packing.
I hadn’t heard about vinegar helping to keep berries fresh, so I’m excited about trying this tip.
HTH.
Dawn