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#there's a giant punnet of strawbs as well
brightynb · 3 years
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okay so it’s my birthday today and my parents sent me a fat box of fresh fruit n veg and i honestly started crying tears of pure joy because i love fruit so goddamn much and it was a gift that i didn’t even consider like wow actually so excited about the fact that i’ve got two kilos of grapes (amongst other goodies) sitting in my fridge right now
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moongladecraft-blog · 4 years
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Keeping food fresh..
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My favourite day is a Friday. Not just because we have pumped up music and filter coffee, but because it’s the fruit and veg market day. I’m lucky because we have a weekly open air market, which makes it a lot easier to avoid all the excess plastic the supermarkets chuck on veg. Besides that benefit, there is also such a ridiculous difference in the size of things! I’m not even exaggerating when I say that the aubergines from the market are easily twice the size of the tiddly ones at coop, and they don’t come in a plastic bag so it’s a double benefit.
Eating plant based means that I appreciate giant cauliflowers and aubergines, they are the stars of our meals so bigger is definitely better!
Going to the market does mean that slightly more prep is needed though. There are a few things I do as soon as we get back, that make a huge difference in the length of time things stay fresh for. I took some pictures this week to demonstrate what I do (yes, I flower arranged coriander and took pictures of it.) 
Coriander
So coriander turns up in these giant bunches. They’re stored in an ice bucket at the market, which keeps them fresh but gets them a bit soggy.
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The main thing I’ve learned is that by putting the coriander bunch in a bottle with the stems in water, and putting a plastic bag over the leaves, it can keep fresh for 10 days - a fortnight. The tiny bags from the coop are sometimes not even fresh when they turn up, and definitely wouldn’t last beyond 3-4 days. 
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I’m a bit specific about these things, so I do a bit of a tidy up on the coriander before sticking it in the fridge. I get rid of any yellow leaves or bits that have ‘gone’. It all gets a good rinse, and then any leaves or little offshoots that will be below the water line get pinched into the separate tray whilst I make it into a tidy bunch.  If these bits are left on they tend to go all soggy, and it grosses me out when I come to cook!
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Basically I just sort them so that there is a good few inches of clear stem to go into the water. This way, you can just pull out a bunch to use and chop it straight away. I wait for the leaves to dry from their rinse before putting the plastic bag over. Plastic does work best for this, we have a handful of bags that are reused (and cleaned!) for this purpose. 
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Spring Onions
Essentially this is the same method as the coriander, minus the bag. I tend to remove the outer layers, and any layers that have stuck to the roots. Again, these will go soggy in the water if left on. To be honest it’s probably not that big of a deal, but it grosses me out! Then they get a good rinse, and get added to the same container as the coriander. I use them in the same meals so they might as well live together! These will start shooting up in the fridge, which is always fun to watch…
Strawberries
It’s strawberry season! And although we are growing our own and the aim for us is to be as self-sustainable as possible, it’s a work in progress, so in the meantime I try to keep them as fresh as possible so we don’t have waste.
Strawberries are another thing which I’ve found keep best with some form of plastic. Luckily they come in plastic trays, so it’s easy to reuse them. These trays also make great seed beds so that’s handy. 
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I think it’s just part of life that strawbs can get a little squishy whilst in transit. Even though the ones that we got today were really fresh, there were still a few that would damage the rest of the punnet if I left them in. So I sort and remove these squishy strawbs, and chop and wash the fresh ones. 
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Whilst they’re drying, I’ll clean out the tray and lay a sheet of brown paper down. 
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The dry strawberries then go back into the punnet and into the fridge (or freezer). This helps them keep for closer to 10 days, rather than about 3 or 4!
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