How to Keep Your Share Fresher For Longer

By Chelsey Geisz

As an intern at EDF, I’ve had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to receive part of my paycheck in the form of veggies! After subsisting off limp carrot shavings and discolored lettuce from the college cafeteria for the last two years, I started the summer overjoyed at the prospect of unlimited access to fresh, local produce. However, that thrill began to lose its luster as dusty Meijer bags full of ambiguous lettuces, yellowed kale, and leftover radishes started to pile up in our fridge. After a long day in the sun, the other interns and I would limp back into our apartment with barely enough energy to scrub the mud off our bodies, much less figure out how to properly care for the vibrant vegetables we brought home. Unfortunately, we’ve been punished for our negligence with spoiled heads of lettuce, discolored bok choy, and the guilty complex that results from trying to sneak moldy beets into the compost when no one else is looking.

Now, maybe I’m crazy, but even if food waste offends every bone in your eco-friendly body, I imagine you’ve been in the same situation. Hey, life is hard, and sometimes you just forget that you stuffed those turnips you don’t really know how to cook in the back of your fridge—until you start to get a strong whiff of eau de decomposition every time you open the door. After all, if you don’t know how to cook something, chances are you definitely don’t know how to store it. Therefore, I want to share some tricks with you I’ve learned about how to maximize the shelf-life of your veggies, so that even if plans change and you end up eating ice cream instead of salad for dinner three nights in a row, your kale will still be waiting for you, as crisp and green as ever. I’ve included tips for many of the veggies you’ve already been receiving, as well as for some of the new varieties you’ll be seeing in coming weeks. I hope these suggestions are helpful in decreasing the stress of impending food waste!

Kale: Do not wash before storage, and don’t destem it until you’re ready to eat! If you have the energy, you can wrap your kale in a paper towel and stick it in some form of air-tight container. The longer it’s kept at room temperature, the more bitter it will get, so place it in the coldest part of your fridge to keep it cool. Also, it doesn’t store well close to apples, melons, or avocados, so keep them separated if possible.

Zucchini: This lovely summer squash has a relatively short shelf-life, so if you don’t think you’ll be using it within five or six days, freeze blanched zucchini in an airtight container for later use. It will keep for up to a year. If you keep it fresh, don’t wash until immediately before use.

Lettuce heads: Keep the head intact and unwashed until you’re ready to make your salad. Store it in your crisper drawer, if possible. If you feel like an over-achiever, you can wrap the head in a paper towel to sop up extra moisture.

Lettuce leaves: Store in your crisper drawer, and check the leaves every other day (or whenever you happen to grab a handful) in order to remove any that are starting to spoil.

Radishes: After bringing your radishes home, rinse them off, chop off the greens on top, as they will steal water from and thus dehydrate the tubers. If stored in a plastic bag, the greens will keep for four or five days in the refrigerator. Meanwhile, wrap the radish tubers in moist paper towels, and place in a partially-opened plastic bag in the refrigerator. They really do best in any location that is cool, moist, and dark, so if you have one of those (…a household dungeon?), feel free to store them there.

Turnips: same as radishes.

Green Onions: This is a fun one. Stick the onions in a jar filled with enough water to cover the roots, and place the jar on your windowsill. Not only will they stay fresh, they’ll also keep growing! A word of caution: if you fill the jar with too much water, the onions will begin to get brown and mushy, so use just enough water to cover the roots.

Bok Choy: Chop off the root of the head (where the leaves are joined), and rinse the leaves in cold water, removing dirt. Blot the leaves dry, roll them up into another paper towel, and stick in an airtight container. Refrigerate in your crisper.

Cucumbers: Don’t leave these on the counter or they’ll go bad in two days! Instead, wrap cucumbers individually in a paper towel and refrigerate in an airtight container. This way, they should stay fresh for a week.

Tomatoes: You’ll likely be seeing these beauties in the next few weeks! Because the refrigerator stops the ripening process and leaves the fruit mealy, you’ll want to leave all under-ripe and ripe tomatoes on the counter. However, fully ripe or over-ripe tomatoes can stand the lower temperatures of your fridge and won’t do well in a hot kitchen, so you can refrigerate them for a few days to prevent mold growth. The trick is to remove them from the fridge a couple of days before eating so that some of the enzymes that produce flavor can return to activity.
Well, that’s all, folks! If you know of any other storage tricks, please don’t hesitate to leave your comments below!