On Storing Vegetables

Appears in

Published 1991

In the end you’ll save on shopping time, to say nothing of money, if you learn to store vegetables properly to preserve and prolong their life.

Keep uncut raw vegetables in open plastic bags in the crisper drawer of the fridge, if possible. This allows moisture to escape and prevents the vegetables from spoiling and becoming limp. Don’t pack them too tightly in the plastic bags because they need room to breathe so that they don’t rot.
If you’re lucky and have a cool dark pantry or cellar, use it to store root vegetables or tubers and save on precious refrigerator space needed for more perishable items. Onions, potatoes, winter squashes, and root vegetables, each kind stored separately in bins, keep well in a cool dark place. However, they must be kept in a refrigerator if you live, as we do, in an overheated city apartment.
If the leafy tops are still attached to the root vegetable, cut them away because the sap continues to flow to the leaf at the expense of the root; store the green tops as you would leafy greens.
To get the most out of leafy greens, wrap them in a dampened towel and place them in an open plastic bag in the crisper drawer in the refrigerator.
Fresh herbs will keep in the refrigerator for a week with the stems in 2 inches of water in a tall glass or jar and the tops covered loosely with a plastic bag.