Wasting food is bad for the budget and the environment. Here are a few ways to keep your food fresh longer so that you can avoid throwing it away later.
1. Wrap Greens in Tinfoil
For crispy vegetables such as lettuce, broccoli, or celery, wrapping them in tinfoil will keep the crunch for longer. Broccoli will stay fresh for seven whole weeks this way, with lettuce lasting six weeks and celery lasting four.
2. Keep Melons in the Fridge
Missing a melon’s ripe-but-not-mushy phase is a sad event. When a melon is ripe, it gets slightly soft at the end that is opposite of the stem, and also begins to smell sweet. At that point, if you stick it in the fridge, it can last another ten days. However, melons taste best at room temperature so let it sit out awhile again before slicing.
3. Spray Avocados with Lemon Juice
In a fridge, the cold will cause the inside of an avocado to turn black. Instead, spray them lightly with citric acid to keep the surface from getting brown and store them in an airtight container.
4. Keep Apples Moist
While apples can be stored out on the counter during the fall, in the summer they should be stored in the fridge and covered with a damp cloth. That way, they will stay plump and fresh for three weeks or more. Remember that just one rotten apple really can spoil the bunch, so be careful when storing them together.
5. Keep Cherries Dry
Cherries are the most fresh when kept in the fridge. Don’t wash until right before eating, however, since the moisture can promote mold growth where the stem and fruit meet.
Using these tips, it’s easy to eat absolutely every fruit and vegetable that you buy. Just in case, though, make sure to build a compost to sustainably discard uneaten food.
