Keep your
summer berries fresh longer By Lori Mork
S
ummer in Minnesota brings a wealth of fresh produce, including a variety of berries. But keeping them fresh can be hard and there’s nothing worse than opening your refrigerator ready to snack on some juicy strawberries, only to find them covered in mold. Doing some research, I found several sites that gave the same advice to help you store your fresh fruit much longer and you only need a few items. Here are the items you’ll need: white vinegar, water and a colander and salad spinner.
Combine 1 part white vinegar and 5 parts water in a large bowl. Very few of the sites I visited had the same ratios, with some 1-to-3 on up to 1-to-8, but I selected a ratio somewhere in the middle. Submerge and soak your berries in the vinegar mixture for a few minutes. Vinegar will help to kill bacteria and mold spores on your strawberries, cleaning and sanitizing them. At this point, you can rinse them with cool water for an additional cleaning, but most sites said to just drain them and that there would be no vinegar taste. Dry your strawberries thoroughly with paper towels. You can place some paper
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towels in a salad spinner then put your strawberries in a single layer on top, then gently spin to help them dry. Make sure to remove all the moisture to keep your fruit mold-free. Once they are dry, transfer berries to a paper towel-lined container in a single layer and cover loosely with a lid. Do not seal it or your strawberries will again get moldy. The paper towels will help soak up any remaining water. This should help keep your fruit moldfree and delicious for at least a week.
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