1. Buy Local Produce
Local produce goes from the ground to the grocery store. There is no freezing, no shipping, and less time spent ripening between the farm and your table.
2. Plan Your Meals
So often your produce goes bad because you bought items without a plan to use them. Then they’re forgotten in the back on the drawer until they start to stink.
3. Store Produce ASAP
Bring your produce home from the store (not after a few more errands) and place directly in their appropriate storage place. If you leave them in a warm car for even an hour, you’re shortening the lifespan of your fruits and vegetables.
4. Prep Your Veggies
If you veggies come on a stalk, get rid of it before storing them in the fridge. Beets, celery, and other stalky and leafy vegetables will spoil faster with the leaves and stalks still on.
5. Avoid Freezing Produce
No, not the freezer. We’re talking about that cold spot in your refrigerator where anything in its place inevitably freezes. Keep your produce away from there.
6. Cold Shock Your Lettuce
If your lettuce has begun to wilt and wither, trim up the lettuce and shock the leaves with a cold bath of water. Fill the sink with super cold water and let your lettuce soak for 10-20 minutes. Then pat dry with a paper towel and you’ll have crisp lettuce again.
7. Shun Rotten Produce
The second something starts to go bad in your fridge, bacteria spreads. This can spoil other produce faster than normal. So chuck anything in the garbage the instant it starts to spoil.
8. Segregate Your Produce
When it comes to refrigerators, keeping your fruits and veggies away from each other is a good idea. Fruits let off ethylene, a type of gas, as they ripen. This can cause surrounding produce to ripen faster as well.
