How to Store Produce So It Lasts Longer

Fruit and vegetables are still alive after you buy them. They respire, they lose water, and some of them give off ethylene gas that speeds up ripening in everything nearby. Storage is simply about slowing all three down, and the rules follow from that.

The ethylene producers are the ones to isolate: apples, bananas, avocados, tomatoes, peaches, pears and melons. The ethylene-sensitive are leafy greens, broccoli, carrots, cucumbers and herbs. Keeping a bowl of apples next to your greens is a reliable way to lose the greens first. Separate them and the difference is measured in days.

Leafy greens die of dehydration. Wash, spin properly dry, then store in a container lined with a dry dish towel or paper towels. The towel absorbs the condensation that would otherwise turn the outer leaves to slime. Done properly, a head of lettuce holds for well over a week.

Herbs split into two camps. Soft herbs — parsley, cilantro, basil — behave like cut flowers: trim the stems, stand them in a jar of water, and cover loosely with a bag. Basil is the exception that hates the cold and should stay on the counter. Hard herbs like rosemary and thyme prefer to be wrapped in a slightly damp paper towel in the fridge.

Some things simply do not belong in a fridge. Cold temperatures turn some of a potato's starch into sugar, which makes it taste sweet and darken when fried. Onions and garlic want dark, dry and airy — a fridge is humid and turns them soft. Tomatoes lose flavor and turn mealy in the cold; refrigerate them only once cut.

Root vegetables last longest with their tops removed. Carrot and beet greens keep drawing moisture out of the root after harvest. Cut them off when you get home and the roots hold firm for weeks rather than days.

Berries mold because of spores already present when you buy them. A brief rinse in three parts water to one part vinegar, then a thorough dry, can noticeably extend the life of a carton. Dry is the operative word — any leftover water undoes the whole exercise.

Finally, respect the crisper drawer's humidity slider, which most people never touch. High humidity is for things that wilt: greens, herbs, broccoli. Low humidity is for things that rot: apples, pears, stone fruit. Setting it correctly costs nothing and is the closest thing to free shelf life in a home kitchen.