Organic Angels share some of their top tips to help keep your fruit and veggies staying fresher for longer.
To get the very best out of your box of organic goodness, we recommend you store away your produce as soon as possible.
Here are some storage tips for your organic fruit and veggies:
- ALL veggies need to be stored in refrigerator in a sealed container or reusable plastic bags or cloth bag (which you can dampen with water to help keep produce crisp).
- Mushrooms are best kept in a paper bag in the fridge.
- Leafy green veggies ideally should be washed, spun dry and stored in a container. If you don’t have time to do this, ensure they are well covered to avoid wilting, stored in fridge.
- Celery can be cut to size (remove base), soaked and washed in cold water before drying and storing away in fridge.
- Onions, Garlic, Pumpkin & Sweet Potato can be kept in a cool, dark cupboard.
- Potatoes are best kept in a dark cool cupboard. Keep away from onions to prevent sprouting. Sprouting is a normal thing for potatoes and does not always mean they are not fresh as some varieties sprout easily than others.
- Tomatoes, tropical fruits like pineapples, melons, and mangoes are best stored at room temperature, as refrigeration can affect their quality and flavour. Keep an eye on them though. Sweet smells are a sign they’re ready to eat and can be refrigerated at this point.
- Stone fruits, apples, bananas and pears produce high levels of ethylene gas, so keep from other fruits and vegetables, unless you want to accelerate the ripening of nearby produce.
- Firm avocados can be placed in a paper bag in a dark warm cupboard. Add a banana to speed up the ripening.
- Firm stone fruit and kiwi fruit can be stored at room temperature then transferred to fridge once ripe, or keep out in the fruit bowl if the room isn’t too hot.
- To ripen bananas (if a too green) store in a dark warm cupboard.
- Citrus fruit is fine at room temperature or in fridge.
- Asparagus can be trimmed at the ends and placed in a glass of water in the fridge.
- Fresh basil and mint are best kept out of the fridge in a glass of water.
- Parsley, oregano, chives and coriander are best wrapped in damp paper or tea towel and put in the fridge.
Other helpful tips:
If your celery and leafy greens have wilted in transport, you can revive them by soaking them in cold water, before dry ingand refridgerating.
Make sure you compost your tops and ends of produce you don’t use, or keep them for making veggie stock.
Any fruit or veggie that has been cut needs to be refrigerated.
Half avocadoes can be refrigerated with seed in and sprinkled with lemon juice to stop browning quickly.
Other helpful tips available on our Facebook and Instagram pages.
Organic Angels is an online home delivery service offering certified organic fresh produce, seasonal boxes and other essential grocery and pantry staples. The company was founded by Sarah and Scott Butler when they were looking for convenient access to organic food for their son. Organic Angels took home ‘Retailer of the Year‘ at the 2019 Australian Organic Industry Awards.
