Going to the grocery store is one of the few unavoidable things you have to do that requires leaving your house during social distancing. It can be easy to stock up on nonperishables, or frozen food, to lessen your trips to the store, but what about fresh fruits and vegetables?
Fresh produce has a lot of nutrients that your body needs, but they tend to expire more quickly than other food. Luckily, there are ways to make that fresh produce last longer and limit the amount of times you have to go to the grocery stores.
Proper Storage
If you want to make your fresh produce last longer, but do not want to go to the hassle of doing anything to them, make sure you are storing them correctly. This means storing produce without plastic and keeping them whole without cutting them until they are ready to be used. It also means storing them at the correct temperature. The optimum storage temperature to preserve fresh fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator is between 34-40 degrees Fahrenheit. Food spoilage occurs at an elevated rate and bacteria grows in warmer temperatures.
Fresh food will also last longer if it is not exposed to light. Making sure your produce is placed in crisper drawers or wrapped in paper towels to slow the deterioration process. Aluminum foil can also be helpful in protecting your produce from exposure to light.
Canning
Canning your fresh produce is another way that you can store produce without plastic that can help you to enjoy all the fresh flavors later on, instead of having to eat them within a two week time frame. You do not need any fancy equipment in order to start canning your own food, just a few jars and a big enough pot for boiling the jars in water. This simple water bath canning method is super easy to follow for beginners, and can preserve some pretty delicious things.
Some more involved canning is pressure canning. This can work great for raw-packing, where you just put the fruit and veggies into a jar without doing anything to them beforehand. Some people will cook or boil the produce for 3-6 minutes and then can it, to get rid of some of the air that surrounds the food in the jar.
No matter what method of canning you choose, the most important thing to remember is to have as little air as possible.
Dehydrating
Purchasing a dehydrator can be great for jerky and for your fresh produce! Dehydrating can be great for fresh fruit, turning your apple into crisp apple chips instead. Your vegetables can be dehydrated too and stored in a cool dry space.
One of the pros of dehydrating versus other methods is that you can rehydrate the foods that you store as well! You can take produce that is in season, dehydrate it, and save it for later use. This can help you to enjoy summer produce all winter long!
Freezing
Freezing your produce is another method you can try to elongate the life of your fruits and veggies by storing produce without plastic. Although you can buy frozen produce already, this is a great method for storing previously bought fresh products that are about to go bad.
This method is especially useful for storing fruits to make smoothies later!
You can be prepared with all the nutrients your body needs by preserving your fresh produce for the long haul. It will make being prepared for any food shortage or disaster easily, just like Civil Dispatch. Sign up today!