Your co-worker gives you a nice juicy tomato from her garden. Should you hurry to the break room and put it in the refrigerator until you go home? Your neighbor puts a half dozen zucchini on your porch and runs away. You are scheduled for three days of vacation and don’t have time to deal with it before you leave. What should you do? Your garden produces a bushel of sweet corn and you can’t possibly eat it all in one day. How should you store it? You overdid it at the Farmers Market and now have a mountain of fresh produce. You’re exhausted and can’t start canning it today. Will it go rotten before you get your energy back?
There are many good books on canning, freezing, and dehydrating foods for long-term storage. Still, there is the question of what to do with those fruits and veggies until you can either eat them or process them.
Cucumbers, sweet peppers, kohlrabi and root crops like carrots, potatoes and beets should be washed and allowed to air dry before storage in the refrigerator. They should be placed in plastic bags with holes in them. The peppers will last 8-10 days while the others will stay fresh for several months.
Hot peppers bound for the dehydrator can start their drying on the kitchen counter or for a decorative effect can be threaded on strong thread or fishing line and hung on the wall.
Beans, peas and okra should be stored in plastic bags and refrigerated, but do not wash them first.
Zucchini will actually last longer on the kitchen counter than in the refrigerator. I’ve left zucchini on the counter for a month and found it to be just as fresh as the day it was picked.
Tomatoes should never be refrigerated. They will taste much better and last longer on the kitchen counter or north-facing window sill. If you have a large amount they can be stored in a cool dry place like the basement but they should not be touching each other. They should sit stem side up.
For sweet corn, try this tip from long-time sweet corn growers Ed and Bev Elandt of Marion: peel it immediately and store it in plastic bags in the refrigerator. It should be as good as fresh-picked for three or four days.
Onions and garlic should be dried in the sun for several days and then stored in a cool, dry area with good air circulation.
Dried beans such as pinto, great northern, kidney and navy beans as well as other beans and peas allowed to grow for seed should be spread out to dry on a newspaper or window screen in a well-ventilated location for several days before shelling.
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