We are well into the summer solstice and gardens are growing, farmer's markets are popping, and fresh produce are in abundance! It is very easy to overestimate how much we can eat and how fast we can eat it, sometimes resulting in food waste. Fear not! There are many ways you can use up all your food and create tasty dishes. This month, we'll walk through some tips that can help preserve your fresh foods longer and what to do if your food is starting to go bad.
Image courtesy: Your Home Made Healthy
One of the most frustrating parts of buying food is not being able to use it fast enough. We can have the best intentions behind buying fresh produce, and it can be tricky to use in enough time. The USDA reported that the average American household wastes up to 40% of their food each year. Learning some hacks to keep your foods lasting longer will help you reduce your personal food waste and keep you eating healthy!
Hack #1: Power of Moisture
There are some vegetables and herbs that can stay fresh by storing them in water or where they have access to moisture. Asparagus is one example. Cutting the bottoms off asparagus, placing them in a jar of water (like a flower bouquet) and keeping them in the fridge can keep them fresh for up to three weeks! Changing out the water will help prolong this. Other produce that works well with this method are green onions and celery. (Celery should be submerged in an airtight container.)
For herbs, this method wouldn't work, it's too much water for them. Instead, wrapping them in a moist paper towel and storing them in the fridge will keep them around for three weeks as well.
Leafy greens are another vegetable that needs just the right balance of moisture so they don't start to get slimy or wilt. A best practice for these is to wash them right away, removing the rubber bands or binding material, patting dry with a paper towel, and storing them wrapped in a DRY paper towel in a sealed plastic bag. It is also noted that keeping them in them in your fridge crisper bin helps control moisture. This can be your method to store them for up to 2 weeks!
Hack #2 Mind the Gas.
Apples, bananas, melons, tomatoes, and other produce produce ethylene gas. Ethylene gas is an odorless, colorless gas known for triggering the ripening of some fruits. For some foods however, it can cause them to go bad faster. Broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower are ethylene sensitive, and will not do well in close proximity to ethylene producing fruits. For example, broccoli will start to yellow in the presence of too much gas.
The key to keeping everyone happy is to keep the gas producers away from those who are sensitive to it. Storage tips include:
Giving apples their own fruit bowl on a counter or table, far from other produce.
Wrap the stems of the banana tips in plastic, this limits their exposure to carbon dioxide and slows down the ripening process.
Store your potatoes in a dry, room temperature pantry. Refrigerating them will increase ethylene production (guilty).
Since strawberries are picked when they are ripe, store them in the fridge away from other ethylene producers.
Hack #3: Freeze em' Solid
While the encouragement to eat fresh foods for health is completely valid, freezing foods at their peak ripeness preserves nutrients while also making the food last longer! Chopped herbs can be frozen in an ice cube tray and added to pans, stews, and soups when you need them. You can also freeze produce like peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, broccoli...and so much more! If your a gardener with a surplus, this is a great route to take. If you want to try eating more vegetables but your fresh ones always go bad, try buying a Frozen Assets Share through Farmshed! We provide you with summer grown, organic, local produce from January to May. 10 varieties of frozen veggies, medley bags, and for the first time customization of shares is possible. Click here to learn more and purchase a share! Financial assistance is possible through Fairshare CSA coalition.
Hack #4: Plan ahead, then shop
It can be easy to overestimate how much food we need, or have good intentions about what we buy and end up not using it. Now more than ever, we need to get the most bang for our buck. One easy practice to make into a habit is making a list of meals you want to make and prioritize the ingredients for those. Meal prep allows us to better understand how much of something you need, and holds you accountable to make the dish later on. Choosing recipes with the same ingredients also better ensures you use everything in enough time.
Hack #5: Use It All Up
If you are passionate about minimizing food waste while cooking, good news! There are a lot of ways you can use up what you have. Some cooking tips are:
Saving the green tops of carrots, radishes, beats, etc. and using them in stews, stir fry, or pesto.
Saving the liquid in chickpea cans and using it to make aquafaba, which can be used as and egg substitute.
Use almond milk that's starting to sour to make super fluffy pancakes!
Save veggie scraps to make homemade vegetable stock.
Use tomato peeks to make tomato powder.
Decreasing our food waste saves us money, supports healthy eating, and is good for the environment. By doing our research and getting creative, we can turn these hacks into habits.
Stay curious,
Maddie & Neena