Whether you grow or buy your organic vegetables, the challenge is how to keep them crisp and fresh if you don’t use them straight away. This clip from Katie Hulber of Willie Greens Organic Farms gives some tips on how to do this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYjYnKvGnug&feature=related

Organic vegetables will often arrive wet or possibly covered in mud. If they are wet, rinse them and wipe them down. This will remove excess moisture. Place a paper towel on the bottom of the container. The paper will help absorb any remaining moisture. Even better, any moisture from the towel will be released back into the container over a couple of days.

Place your veggies on top, and then seal with a lid. Katie suggests a glass container if possible. Plastic containers will work too, but many people prefer not to use plastic. This works really well for leafy vegetables such as lettuce or spinach. The air remains slightly humid in your sealed container, and so helps keep your produce crisper.

In my experience if your carrots or parsnips or potatoes arrive covered in mud, don’t wash the mud off until you’re ready to use them. As long as the mud isn’t actually wet, earth covered veggies seem to stay fresher for longer. If the mud is wet, wash it off and follow Katie’s tips above.

The thing I’ve found with organic fruit and vegetables is that they definitely don’t last as long as conventional produce. I take the shorter shelf life as a positive sign. It means my vegetables are not sprayed or grown with chemical preservatives. Nor are they irradiated to make them last longer. Organic food is natural food.

Filed under: Organic Kitchen

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