How to preserve food. Part two.

Did you know that, generally speaking, you should not wash fruits and vegetables when you first bring them in from the grocery store to go into your refrigerator. An exception to this would be bananas. But you generally don’t put bananas right into your refrigerator anyway. You do wash them, top and bottom, to get rid of fruit flies and their eggs. You, also, should not put tomatoes right into your refrigerator, or onions, or potatoes, or garlic. Wrap your lettuce in paper towels and your celery in foil, before placing in your refrigerator and wash just before using, as I have mentioned in a previous blog. Strawberries and other berries, fresh cherries, and grapes, should go right into your refrigerator and washed right before you use them. When you go to “hull” your strawberries, wash them carefully before you cut the tops off. I read that if you cut the tops off and then wash them, you wash away  some flavor. I, also, do not wash my raspberries, cherries, or grapes  prior to freezing them. But wash them just prior to use. I have not had as good of luck freezing my strawberries. I do not know why. But I, also, am not crazy about frozen strawberries from the grocery store either.

It is not recommended that you put bread in your refrigerator. The reason is that your bread will mold much faster in the refrigerator. I like to separate the bread into portions and label and freeze these portions. This works great for us.

Another tip is to keep nuts in your refrigerator, at least. An even better idea is to freeze them, perhaps in portions. Nuts are high in fat and, therefore, get stale very quickly.