How do you store your fruits and vegetables?

Every Saturday after our trip to the market I have the same problem: We bought so many vegetables that I don't know where to put them. I already considered a three-drawer-plastik-container to make use of the whole height of the shelf where we normally put them, but they seem to get too little air in there. And I don't want to put everything on top of each other because then the ground layer gets smooshed.

I'm hesitating to buy one of those three-tier-metal-baskets because they are soooo 80s. Plus, if the mesh is too widely knit it leaves marks on the produce.

How do you do it?

Frau Neudecker
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7 Comments

latoscana
latoscana July 27, 2011
I have one of those three-tiered metal display racks that holds dessert-style plates. I think it is supposed to be used for a buffet but I have used it on my kitchen counter for years to store tomatoes, stone fruit, pears and anything I think will last more than a day outside a fridge - like aargersi, I'm in Texas where we're experiencing something like our 40th day over 100 degrees. In addition to all the reasons for not subjecting fruit to the cold, what I like about having fruit on the counter, is you always see it so you can be sure to enjoy it when it is most perfectly ripe.
 
boulangere
boulangere July 27, 2011
I line my (blush) '80 hanging baskets with fabric napkins. When the basket is empty, the napkin goes in the laundry and I start over with a clean one. No, they don't match.
 
Droplet
Droplet July 26, 2011
What you could do is try to get fruits at various stages of ripening and when arranging them at home put the ones that are slightly under ripe, and therefore harder, on the bottom. By under ripe I mean ones that only need a few days to be just right, because otherwise you will be compromising on flavor. I know that certain fruits tend to speed up and other to hinder the ripening process of other fruits in their proximity, but I couldn't tell you which ones they are. You could also get some softer weaved baskets to store them in and if you lay a folded kitchen towel on the bottom that should eliminate any problem of potential marks.
 
SKK
SKK July 25, 2011
Anything I have learned about streamlining storage I have learned from living and working in Europe. If you don't like the wires because of the marks they make, maybe someone has invented a kind of mesh hanging storage.
 
Frau N.
Frau N. July 25, 2011
I live in Paris, so most of the year we can leave fruit and veggies on the shelf. And I don't like fruit coming directly from the fridge, just too cold. But being a bit short on shelf-space I'm still looking for something to stack the produce on top of each other without destroying it.
 
SKK
SKK July 25, 2011
aargersi has a good point - where do you live? Do you have a basement? What are you storing? I live in Seattle where it has been very cool. So I store my vegetables and some fruits in bowls, baskets and where they also act as decoration. Basil goes into a jar of water on my kitchen counter, cucumbers in perforated plastic bags in the fridge, radishes without tops cleaned and in a bowl of water in the fridge, tomatoes in a basket on the counter. Fruit like cherries, raspberries I use immediately in recipes or freeze or dehydrate or can them. Hope this helps.
 
aargersi
aargersi July 25, 2011
second fridge in the garage - it's too hot here to store them on a shelf or even in the kitchen really. Eat fast :-)
 
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