Simple Kitchen Hacks That Reduce Fruit & Vegetable Waste While Saving Money

Simple Kitchen Hacks Reduce Food Waste

Grocery prices have gone up so much over the last couple of years that most of us are trying to waste as little food as possible. Also, we would like to see less food waste from an environmental perspective. We have shared some simple kitchen hacks that can reduce your family’s food bill while keeping your food fresh longer, saving you money. We had fun researching this article and we hope it provides some simple ways for you and your family to reduce food waste, reduce trips to the grocery store, and reduce your grocery bill at the same time.

Kitchen Hack to Keep Bananas for Longer

If you buy organic bananas, they aren’t treated with a ripening agent, but if you buy conventional bananas most of them have been treated with a ripening agent. If you buy organic bananas all you need to do to have them stay fresh longer is keep them unrefrigerated, away from other fruit, and wrap the stem core with plastic cling wrap. If you buy conventional bananas first wipe down the bananas with a wet paper towel to remove the ripening agent and then follow the directions for organic banana care to keep your banana fresh longer.

When your bananas get ripe and if you don’t want to use them right away you can remove the skins and freeze them whole in a plastic bag to use for smoothies and such. If you want to use your ripe bananas for baking you can smash the bananas first and freeze them in one-cup portions to use in cakes, breads, ice cream, and bars.

 

Keep Onions Fresh for Months with This Kitchen Hack

If I hadn’t read this hack many places, I would think people were pulling a joke. But having tried this hack to keep yellow onions fresh longer I can say it does work. If you have a pair of thin tights that maybe have a run in them or has seen better days cut off the foot and body so you have to separate leg portions, tie a knot at the bottom, insert an onion, tie a knot, and do this for each onion making sure there is a large knot between onions so they don’t touch, then hang your used tight legs with onions in your pantry. Your onions should keep fresh for months.

If having your old tights hanging in your pantry doesn’t appeal to you, you can chop your onions, measure out half-cup and one-cup portions and freeze them. Freezing your onions doesn’t take away from flavor and then they are easy to add to any dish you are cooking.

 

Foil Help Some Green Vegetables Last Longer

If like me you like to have celery on hand for soups, stews, and an occasional appetizer but it tends to go bad so quickly, this hack is for you! If you wrap celery with foil very tightly it will stay crisp and delicious stored in the refrigerator for weeks. This hack also works for storing broccoli and keeps your broccoli fresh for up to four weeks or longer without losing its color or great taste!

 

It’s Berry Picking Time-This Kitchen Hack Keeps Them Fresh

The blackberries are in their prime for picking in Sonoma county, so its a wonderful time to learn a way to keep your berries whether hand-picked or store-bought fresh and delicious for weeks. Berries whether strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, or Marion berries tend to be our most expensive fruits to buy and they tend to mold or get ripe and spoil quickly.

There is a method to keep your berries fresh for a couple of weeks! Try washing your berries in an 8:1 solution of water to white vinegar, not apple cider vinegar or red vinegar. The solution would be 8 parts water to 1 part white vinegar. You won’t taste the vinegar but your precious berries will last much longer.

 

Keep Your Tomatoes on Your Countertop

First, tomatoes do better unrefrigerated and their flavor is better too. A simple trick shared in many places is putting tape on the stem end of your tomato and then storing them stem down. If your tomatoes are nearing peak ripeness still keep the tape on the stem end and only then storing them in the refrigerator. You’ll love the taste of your tomatoes that much more!

 

Companion Storing Works to Keep Food Fresher

Just like companion planting works to keep bugs away, companion storing helps to keep potatoes fresher longer. I tried this kitchen hack and I was amazed!

If you store an apple with your potatoes in your pantry the apples keep the potatoes from sprouting! It only takes one apple whose ethylene gas will help your potatoes stay fresh and un-sprouted for up to six weeks. Extending the lifespan of our fruits and vegetables means fewer trips to the store, saving time, and buying less gas.

 

Extending the Life of Zucchini & Squash

Zucchini can be stored in the refrigerator successfully if you use a brown paper bag and then stored in a vegetable crisper with minimal humidity.  Winter squash is best stored like potatoes with lots of air circulation and a dry place. Summer yellow squash can be stored like zucchini for best results.

 

A Simple Kitchen Hack for Extending the Life of Asparagus

Asparagus is a wonderful vegetable but can be prone to spoiling quickly. Make a fresh cut on the asparagus ends, much like you would with a bouquet of flowers, then stand the asparagus up in a glass or jar with about an inch or two of water, making sure all the ends are sitting in the water. A mason jar works well for this task. Cover the asparagus with a plastic bag and store it in the refrigerator for up to a week. If the water starts to look cloudy, just change as needed.

 

Keep Watermelon Fresh Longer

Watermelon is wonderful to eat during the summer, but it can also spoil before it has been completely eaten. To extend the life of your watermelon place a couple of cloves of garlic on top of the watermelon and then wrap the cut top with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator. We have also found that cutting up watermelon and storing it in a BPA-free container also helps extend the usable life of watermelons.

 

Extending the Life of Salad Greens

Whether you buy loose greens, packaged greens, or greens in a plastic box, the next tip will help keep your salad greens fresher for much longer. Putting a paper towel in with bagged loose greens or boxed greens will help them stay crisp and extend their storage life. Moisture is what makes greens wilt, so the paper towels soak up the moisture so that you have crisp greens to use for your salad.

 

Tips to Keep Nectarines, Peaches & Plums Last Longer

Peaches, Nectarines, and plums can be fragile fruit and prone to go bad quickly. Each of these fruits lasts longer if you put them in a brown paper bag with holes and keep the humidity low or store them in a green bag that controls off-gassing which depletes the usability of your fruit.

Taking a little extra time to store your fruit and vegetables in the best way can save you so much money and time. If you want to save more time, give us a call at 707-827-3316 or fill out our FREE Estimate Form and receive a free estimate on having Crystal Clear Home clean your home and save you time to do the things you love!