How Long Basic Foods Last, Part 1

We Always Need to Purge

In an earlier post I talked about how to purge items that are not needed in the kitchen to free up space.  Today I have lots of information as to how long we should keep fruits and vegetables before we have to purge them.

Most of us have 5 categories related to food in our kitchen:

1. Fruits
2. Vegetables
3. Grains
4. Baking items
5. Canned-bottled-boxed or bagged goods

Fruits

Fruits and Vegetables don’t have labels on them in order to have an expiration date on them so after researching the following items here’s what I’ve found:

• Strawberries: whole room temp 1-2 days, refrig 3-5 days | cut room temp 1 day, refrig 1-3 days.
  Make them last longer:
  1) mix one part vinegar to 10 parts water
  2) soak 2 min
  3) drain
  4) dry for 20 min on papertowels
  5) back in airtight container
  6) enjoy them for weeks
  **keep them cold and dry to prevent mold
  Refresh them:  put into a bucket of ice water for 20 minutes and boom!  They’re back to being bright red and perfectly juicy again.  Do not try this with ones that have actually gone bad try only ones with few imperfections without mold.
• Grapes:  unwashed in a plastic bag in the refrigerate:  1-2 weeks. You can freeze them for future snacks.  Should always hold off washing grapes until you are ready to eat them.  Same goes for
• BlueBerries & Cherries.  Discard any bruised or moldy looking ones before you refrigerate
• Watermelon:  cut watermelon lasts 3-5 days in the refrigerator.  Wrap the cut side in plastic .  Whole (W)store in the refrigerator for up to 2-3 weeks.
• Bananas:  Ripe ones last 2-3 days in the pantry or 5-7 days in the refrigerator. To make them last longer – wrap the stems in plastic wrap.  The refrigerator will turn them black but will not harm the fruit.
• Apples:  unwashed and whole 6-8 weeks in the refrigerator place in bin and rotate them often.
• Clementines:  approx. 1-2 month store in open mesh bag or refrigerator bin. *room temperature for both are only 5-7 days

Vegetables

Veggies we have most often:

• Romaine Letttuce:  unwashed and stored loosely in closed plastic bag will last up to 7-10 days.
• Cucumbers:  wrapped in plastic in refrigerator 7-10 days. Sliced in refrig 1-2 days in a closed container.  Bags make them slimy
• Baby Carrots & Celery:  stored in covered containers or plastic bags in the refrigerator will last 1-2 weeks
• Raw Broccoli:  must be refrigerated.  Best in loose bag or wrap they come in.  Florets will last 4-7 days.  Cooked will last 3-5 days in covered container.
• Raw Cauliflower: must be refrigerated.  Head will last up to 2 weeks uncut.  Florets in a plastic bag for up to a week.  Cooked is the same 3-5 days.
• Asparagus:  must be refrigerated.  Store like flowers if not eaten right away.  Put in mason jar with water and wrap the top with plastic wrap.  Fresh for up to a week and cooked 3-5 days.
• Onions:  we use both yellow & red.  Shelf life open container they will last 4-6 weeks.  Stored in the fridge, no bags in the open bin will last 1-2 months  Raw Garlic is stored and last the same as onions.  Cut onions 7 days.
• Avocados:  unripe on the counter 2-3 days  fridge:  3-5 days uncut they do continue to ripen in the fridge but at a slower rate. ½ avocado 24 hours     mashed avocado  24 hours
• Potatoes:  red, Yukon gold, russet and sweet all have shelf life of 1-2 weeks in a cool, no sunlight bin – not in sealed bags or containers.  Fridge will have longer life of 1-2 months stored in the open bin.  If they have sprouts it is still safe to eat them but just remove the sprouts before baking.  Cooked potatoes only last up to 4 days then purge them as they develop bacteria you cannot see.

Lastly, most commonly asked question is regarding Eggs:

Eggs:  are they still safe after expiration date?  Raw eggs will maintain their best quality for about 3 weeks after the sell by, use by or best by expiration dates –  Assuming constant refrigeration.

You can download a helpful chart by clicking the link below:

I hope you are enjoying this just as much as I am as I am learning how to have food last longer and stay fresher so they are eaten and not have to be purged.  Next week I will cover the other three categories.  Thanks for watching, see you then!

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