I’m trying this new series of articles on Fridays called “Favorite Things Friday” where I will be sharing some of my favorite things, products, life tips, in hopes that you might find it useful in some way for your family. Please let me know in the comments if you would like to see more articles like this. I’m experimenting with this for the next few weeks. If you would like to see more articles like this, I can keep this series going. To go along with these Friday articles, I’ll also include a Giveaway!
My kids love strawberries and blueberries. One of the biggest frustrations I have with strawberries is that they rot so quickly in the fridge. So much so that I started avoiding buying Organic Strawberries, since they tend to go bad even faster. Often, I’ll check back after 2-3 days of buying them, and the entire pack is moldy and needs to be thrown away. I hate wasting food! (Really, I hate wasting anything that I paid for with hard earned money.)
Let me document some tips and products I found helpful in helping to keep strawberries fresh for longer (and other produce too).
How to Keep Strawberries Fresh for Longer
Here are some tips that I’ve learned on how to keep strawberries last longer than the usual 2-3 days. The key to keeping strawberries fresh is to keep them stored clean and dry.
1. Wash Right Away with Vinegar
Once I get home from the grocery store, I wash the Strawberries before they go in the fridge. Mold spores on the fruits are what makes them go bad quickly.
I wash my strawberries with Apple Cider Vinegar and water mix. You can do this in a big bowl or a salad spinner. Leave it soaking for a few minutes. The vinegar solution helps to remove spores and bacteria on the fruit, thus extending their life.
I typically add about 2 tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar to a bowl of water. But you can use regular Vinegar as well. Some people add more vinegar for their wash solution (ie. 1 cup vinegar for 3 cups of water), in which case you’ll have to rinse extra well.
2. Dry Your Strawberries
Drying your berries is the next important step. You can get rid of excess water by spinning it a few times in a salad spinner. AND/OR drying it with a soft cloth or paper towel.
You can also air dry them in a colander, but with so many things going on, I’m afraid I’ll forget about the drying berries on the counter overnight (lol), so I don’t do this.
3. Storing Your Strawberries for Freshness
The quick and cheapest solution (what I used to use) for storage is to line the plastic containers (they came in) with paper towels and put the berries back in the containers.
And then a few months ago, there was a deal we posted on these Rubbermaid FreshWorks containers. I got a set to try and have been hooked ever since!
There’s a little perforated tray in the bottom of the container to keep produce from soaking in any condensation and moisture. And the lid has little “holes” in it to allow air flow in and out of the container.
I’ve since purchased a few more of these from Target (with the food storage category coupon), and I use it with all my fruit that needs washing.
One tip I found to be helpful is to wash all your fruits and veggies in one sitting. Then dry and store. It’ll save you time in the long run instead of washing one item as you need it. Plus, it’s so much more convenient to use, without the additional friction of needing to wash fruits. In the mornings, I love pulling out my green and white containers of already washed fruits and packing my kid’s lunches. SO Nice!
Giveaway Time! Win a Set of FreshWorks for FREE
To make it fun, I’m gonna include a Giveaway to go with these Favorite Things Friday articles every Friday. Check back every Friday for more of my Favorite Things.
For today’s giveaway, I’m giving away the 3-Piece set of FreshWorks Produce Saver Food Storage Containers to 4 Readers. This giveaway starts on Friday 8/24 and will end on Monday 8/27. Winners will be announced on this blog only on Tuesday 8/28 before 12pm PST. You’ll have 48 hours to claim your prize.
To enter in this giveaway: leave a comment below with a useful tip you use at home or something you recently learned or tell me about one of your favorite products. And tell me where you’re reading from (city and state). Let me know by leaving a comment on this post.
This post is NOT sponsored by anyone. I just really love this product and wanted to share my experience. All prizes are paid for by myself.
Do You Have a Favorite Product or Life Tip? Want to be published in a future “Favorite Things Friday”? Shoot me an email with your write up and pictures. If I accept your submission and publish your tip, I’ll also send you a $50 Gift Card to the store of your choice. Send email to tina@FreeStuffFinder.com with subject “Favorite Things Friday Tip”.
Jessie from San Francisco, California. I recently heard of a tip to keep the living room clean by leaving some room between the sofa and wall so that you can put the kids toys in between to keep the area nice and clean. It’ll leave the whole space with a cleaner look.
I’ve learned that if you ever buy fruit or anything else that needs to ripen relatively quickly that you should always buy bananas with it. For example, want to make some amazing guacamole but all the avocados at your local grocery store are as hard as a baseball? Buy bananas and put the avocados in a paper bag with the bananas. The bananas give off a natural gas called ethylene. This helps the other fruit in the bag (in this case avocados) ripen much faster than if you were to just leave them on your counter. And after those bananas have done their job and ripened themselves you can cut them up, freeze them and blend them with milk, cinnamon, nutmeg and some vanilla extract and make homemade healthy ice cream. 🙂
J. Foster
Brooklyn, NY
Hi from Virginia! I keep my greens inside paper brown bags and it keeps the moisture and freshness, I have been wanting to try the new Rubbermaid to keep my Blueberries and Kale…I like crispy kale nice and fresh. Thank you!
Hello from Dallas, Tx…………. as a baker I work alot with fresh fruit. I do the exact sane thing with my fruit to keep them fresh longer. What I dont have is the Rubbermaid containers. This is something I would like to win
From Austin TX!!wow neat tip now I know to use the vinegar wash in my berries !
Having two small kids I love reusable snack bags and pouches to pack snacks in! The ones I have a fun designs, and we’re not creating trash.
I just learned about these containers jus in time we love strawberries so we always buy big case from cosco bcuz there always so sweet but when we dont eat them all they do go bad so thank you for the tip im always on YouTube looking for reviews on how to stop wasting food ..reading from Aurora,IL the only tip i have about having herbs kept in the fridge longer is rinsing tbem and drying it a little and wrapping them in paper towels nd the placing it in a tight zipped ziploc bag in placing it in the fridge clinatro nd parsley last alot longer this way
I put cilantro in a deep container with a little bit of water in the refrigerator to keep it fresh longer. Greetings from Arlington, TX.
Easy lunchboxes, love them for kids lunches
Greeting from Laredo, TX. One of the things that I try to do when cleaning and I read this somewhere is make piles of items that belong together that way I take everything at once and not do multiple trips. To be honest sometimes I don’t follow my own tip especially when I Want to be a little more active that day. Well I guess that two tips. 🙂 Amanda B.