Making the veggies last longer

Since I started participating in the Bountiful Baskets co-op, I have more fresh produce at my house.  I cook about 5 nights a week, but we sometimes have some produce that I just can't use up right away.  And I HATE throwing food away because it has gotten past it's prime before I can use it.

When I ran across these little things, I thought I'd give them a try.  Amazon says that they "prolong the freshness and storage life of fruits and vegetables" and that it "pays for itself a dozen times over in the first year."  Basically, the little plastic blue apple holds some ethylene gas absorbing material.  Ethlylene gas is a naturally produced gas given off during the ripening of fruits and vegetables.  If you store fruits and veggies together, the gas they give off makes the other produce ripen as well.  The idea behind these is that if the gas is absorbed by the Bluapple thingy, it will make the produce last longer.

So when I picked up my basket from Bountiful Baskets two Saturdays ago, I popped the little blue apple things into the produce drawers.  I always rinse all my fruits and veggies (except onion and garlic) in a vinegar rinse (1 part vinegar to 10 parts water) and then air dry before I store it all to reduce the mold spores on everything.  This prolongs the life of stored produce, but I was still throwing some things out if I didn't get to them quickly enough.  I was hoping the ethlylene gas absorbers lived up to their claims to keep all the produce nice and fresh.

I'm happy to report that I haven't thrown anything out this time.  The few things I have left are still in good condition as of tonight.  The two types of lettuce (green leaf and butter) are still crisp.  The butter lettuce has a few brown spots that are easily cut away, but the green leaf lettuce is still great!  I still have some celery that normally gets really limp and rubbery, but it is super crisp still after 2 weeks!  The asparagus (which usually has a short life) is still in good condition.  One word of caution if you get these....make sure things are ripe before you put them in a drawer with the Blueapples.  We cut into an avocado tonight from 2 weeks ago, and it still wasn't ripe :)  Oops!  Next time I will leave things that need a bit more ripening out on the counter for a day or two.

Overall, the Bluapple Ethlylene Gas Absorbers were a good purchase, and one I could recommend.

This is the green leaf lettuce....nice and crisp and fresh

The asparagus is still good.  It needs to be eaten soon, but it looks great for two weeks old!

This is the butter lettuce.  Notice the brown spots up near the top right.  Not bad at all though and easily removed.