5 Tips to Keep Your Food Fresh

When it comes to freshness, nothing beats a farmers market.  The produce was grown locally and naturally, the meats are cut from grass-fed, happy livestock, and the breads are home-baked.  As delicious as the foods are, they also have a tendency to spoil faster because they aren’t loaded with preservatives and chemicals that maximize longevity the way foods at the supermarket are.
If you love shopping for fresh groceries at a farmers market but are frustrated in your attempts to keep them fresh, here are a few ideas to get the longest life from your food*:

1.    Scale back your purchase.  Frequently shoppers at farmers markets fall in love with the freshness of the available foods and go on a buying binge, getting as much as they can possibly carry in their arms, and then coming right back for more.  The problem with this is that unless you plan on cooking everything right away, you probably won’t use everything you bought.  So buy only what you know you will use — and be sure not to stuff the bags so full that the veggies can’t breathe.  (That’s two tips in one!)

2.    Don’t take the scenic route home.  You might be inspired by all the natural foods you just bought, but taking a long time getting home (even if it’s to admire nature in all its splendor) is not the right thing to do after buying groceries.  Especially if it is warm, your food will lose much of its life sitting in your car.

3.    Don’t leave produce in a sealed bag.  Veggies are people too! (Well, not exactly, but they do need oxygen to survive.) Keeping produce in a sealed bag interferes with ripening and speeds up decay.

4.    Refrigerate only when necessary.  Not all produce needs to be refrigerated.  In fact, some produce is better when left in a clean, dry, well-ventilated, shadowy place.  Here are some of those produce items:

•    Melons
•    Onions
•    Potatoes
•    Sweet potatoes
•    Tomatoes
•    Winter squash
•    For everything else, store in a clean fridge at 40 degrees F or below.

5.    Let them breathe! Even the produce you keep in the refrigerator should be placed inside perforated plastic bags, so that they retain moisture but aren’t suffocated.  You can buy restaurant grade perforated bags, but if you want to save money, just use a thumbtack to poke dozens of small holes in a food-grade plastic bag (think Ziploc).

* Plus, these tips work when buying groceries from the supermarket as well!  Hopefully they will help you keep your food as fresh as possible for as long as possible — happy shopping!

This guest post is contributed by Lauren Bailey, who regularly writes for accredited online colleges. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: blauren99 @gmail.com. 

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