Ethically Kate: How to keep fruit and vege fresher for longer

Not a banana in sight. Photo / 123rf

OPINION

Storing your vegetables correctly is the secret to them lasting longer. Most households store their vegetables based on what they are and what ingredients go together, instead of what temperatures they thrive in and what other vegetables are ideal storage companions.

Storing vegetables is an artform; one that many people overlook. Personally, my apples sit with my potatoes and my bananas are exiled from any communication with other fruits. And I will tell you why…

When fruit ripens it emits a gas called ethylene. You can’t often smell it, but if you do, it has a light, musky odour. Different types of fruits and vegetables emit ethylene gas at varying rates. The more gassy, the quicker the produce ripens.

This means if you have a bunch of fruit sitting side by side that all let off ethylene at speedy rates, the fruit is going to ripen incredibly quickly and probably before you are able to consume it all. Pairing slower-ripening fruits and vegetables with the ones that love to emit ethylene is a great way to control the readiness of your food.

Bananas are gassy wee things. They produce a lot of ethylene and are also affected heavily by any ethylene emitted from items around it. To keep your bananas from ripening too quickly, leave them on their own, away from everything else. Melons, pears, kiwifruit, avocados, mangoes and tomatoes are high ethylene emitters too. Pair these beside slower emitters like broccoli, cabbages, zucchini, pumpkins, cucumbers, potatoes, and berries.

I hope after you read this you’ll stop storing potatoes with onions. They go together wonderfully in meals but because they both excrete moisture, they’re not ideal storage buddies. Keeping your apples with potatoes in a cool, dark space is the best way to keep your spuds from sprouting.

Dry tea towels are great tools to wrap up things like berries and lettuces so moisture is drawn away from them and if you ever notice something rotting, remove it from all other produce immediately as it will make everything around it ripen.

If your broccoli, carrots, or celery are looking a bit floppy, popping the stems in water for a few hours will freshen them up. Storing things in jars of water from the get-go is a great strategy too. For example, store celery sticks in a container of water or stand asparagus upright in a jar of water.

One of the most important techniques for longer-lasting fruit and vegetables is to make sure fresh foods are at the front of your fridge, not squished into the back corner where you’ll forget about them.

If you don’t trust yourself to check on your produce regularly, set reminders on your phone for a “produce audit”. Inspect them, make sure no one in your household has moved them away from their ideal storage companions, move items to the fridge if they’re ripening too quickly, and plan meals around the produce that needs to be eaten first.