Comments on The Green Phone Booth: How to Store Produce without Packaging

Great tips. Thanks a lot for the advice. They'...

2010-03-30T08:08:54.773-07:00

Great tips. Thanks a lot for the advice. They're very helpful.

Great tip about lettuce! I store onions, potatoes...

2010-03-02T19:58:24.231-08:00

Great tip about lettuce! I store onions, potatoes and carrots in our garage because it is cool and dark. They have been lasting forever.

Great tips. I've found that the store in water...

2010-02-25T12:42:25.837-08:00

Great tips. I've found that the store in water trick also works for olives and fresh mozzarella, as long as you keep remembering to change the water.

@Jenn the Greenmom - I too have discovered that produce seems to keep longer in mesh produce bags. Glad to know it's not all in my head.

Great tips, thanks! I'm going to try the carr...

2010-02-17T23:36:20.799-08:00

Great tips, thanks! I'm going to try the carrots/celery in water. Then, to use up all the leftover veg I always make a quick pureed veg soup at the end of the week - just boil the veg in stock, season, whizz with immersion blender (the best kitchen gadget!) and maybe drizzle in some cream if you're feeling naughty. Yum!

This is great, just a little bit of water on a clo...

2010-02-17T22:30:49.046-08:00

This is great, just a little bit of water on a cloth can make a huge difference in the quality of your produce- you just have to remember to do it right after you get home. We use foil to wrap our celery and have found that it stays really crisp this way for weeks and you don't lose nutrients by soaking them in water. Even better, you can reuse the foil every time you buy celery preventing you from producing more waste.

like Kellie says, asparagus + fresh herbs if you&#...

2010-02-17T19:42:31.083-08:00

like Kellie says, asparagus + fresh herbs if you're buying not growing, do well standing up in a cup of water. I freeze a lot of extra herbs as well -- and make veggie broth from peelings and such, so if something is a little past prime but not rotting, I throw it in my freezer bag for the next broth batch. Love this post....

@Beth - Me too - I fumed to my husband about it fo...

2010-02-17T19:15:41.092-08:00

@Beth - Me too - I fumed to my husband about it for days. They got so many things wrong in that article.

Thanks for the link! My favorite tip of all is im...

2010-02-17T17:58:11.087-08:00

Thanks for the link! My favorite tip of all is immersing carrots and celery in water. We've been doing it for years and they stay crispy for many weeks. Not that it takes us that long to eat them.

Glad you responded to that Freekonomics article. It pissed me off.

Putting potatoes in a paper bag helps keep them go...

2010-02-17T17:44:26.503-08:00

Putting potatoes in a paper bag helps keep them good. I just use one that my in-laws had, since I don't get any.

Also I have an award for you on my blog- http://www.retrohousewifegoesgreen.com/2010/02/i-won-three-awards.html

Great post Erin! If we're going to throw som...

2010-02-17T13:58:42.036-08:00

Great post Erin!

If we're going to throw something (food or plastic) away anyway, I'd much rather throw a rotten head of lettuce into my compost heap than a plastic bag into the landfill.

We store asparagus standing up in the fridge with the bottoms in a bowl of water. Also, store bananas away from your other produce. Keeping bananas close to all your other fruit will make it go bad much faster.

Thank you so much for this list! I also wrap my le...

2010-02-17T12:15:03.923-08:00

Thank you so much for this list! I also wrap my lettuce in a damp towel and it lasts over a week, did not know about the carrots, though. Another tip - store apples away from other fruit and veggies since they emit Ethylen which will cause other fruits and veggies to ripen faster.

I learned from my mom to also put radishes (cleane...

2010-02-17T11:38:50.700-08:00

I learned from my mom to also put radishes (cleaned up and ready to eat) in water.
Great tips!
Kathy

2010-02-17T11:10:10.766-08:00

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@Olivia - Great point. I often use the carrot or c...

2010-02-17T10:59:21.564-08:00

@Olivia - Great point. I often use the carrot or celery water when I'm making broth, but I hadn't thought of using it in bread. Love that idea.

I cannot tell you how helpful this post is! Thank ...

2010-02-17T10:39:38.688-08:00

I cannot tell you how helpful this post is! Thank you!

Erin, this is priceless! Thank you--this is absolu...

2010-02-17T10:34:31.452-08:00

Erin, this is priceless! Thank you--this is absolutley info I will use. I'm one of those people who all-too-often loses the produce to rot, and nine times out of ten it used to do its rotting INSIDE the plastic produce bag I bought it in. Oddly (or not!) since switching to mesh bags a lot of problems have gone away, but your suggestions will help us a lot! Thanks--
Jenn

Just a note: storing cut vegs in water will leach ...

2010-02-17T09:14:53.109-08:00

Just a note: storing cut vegs in water will leach nutrients so water should then be used as stock or baked into bread or other baked goods so vitamins are not thrown out.