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SIMPLE RULES FOR STORING FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

When you've returned home after selecting the season's finest bounty there's no point keeping it in sub-optimal conditions only to throw it into a fridge-clearing soup or even worse, the bin. Follow a few simple rules, keep that produce in tip-top condition and enjoy crispy carrots and springy silver beet all week.

Always store fruit and vegetables separately, Fruit emits much more ethylene than vegetables and vegetables are much more sensitive to ethylene than fruit, so, always store fruit and vegetables in separate drawers. Otherwise you'll understand why they say one bad apple will spoil the whole barrel. Divide all fruit and vegetable into those that like the cold and those that don't.

Fruit

Out of the fridge: If a fruit grew in the tropics then you can happily assume it won't like the cold. Bananas, pineapples, mangoes, melons, lychees, pomegranates, coconuts, mangos teen, guava and papaya prefer the fruit bowl. Watermelon, however, prefers to be alone; it's highly sensitive to ethylene and will deteriorate much faster in company. Grapes are similarly sensitive.

In the fridge: Fruits which prefer the cold or will last a decent time if kept in the fridge include apples, pears, berries, grapes and oranges. Strangely, although you can freeze every other variety of orange, if you freeze a navel orange it will turn bitter. Stone fruits are a particular lot and if you refrigerate them before they are ripe they will turn mealy and lose flavour. However, once they are ripe you can keep them in the crisper for a couple of days. Just remember to always bring fruit to room temperature for eating so you get the best flavour.

Vegetables

Out of the fridge: Potatoes store best in dirt, it's a natural preservative, instead of digging storage mounds outside like it's the olden days just be happy to buy unwashed potatoes and store them dirty somewhere very dark.  Onions like somewhere dark with good air circulation, whole pumpkins and sweet potatoes are also best stored this way.

In the fridge: All the hardy greens like silver beet and kale like a bit of humidity to keep them fresh and love to be wrapped in a damp cloth in the crisper. Delicate greens like go through the roof, however, will turn to mush at the first sign of water, make sure these ones are stored wrapped in a dry cloth in the fridge. Although root vegetable look pretty with their green leaves make sure you remove the tops, otherwise the leaves will continue to grow causing the root to soften and lose flavor

POSTED BY PASCAL J BAPRM 47634