Welcome to Food waste Friday.
it’s that time of the week where I stand naked in front of you and confess all my food waste sins.
The aim is that I have nothing to declare, but so far, not so good.
I’ve had something every week for the past five that is beyond edible, from cream cheese to avocados to slimy kale.
This week is no exception and I’m SO annoyed with myself.
It’s strawberry season and this week we saw a punnet of strawberries reduced to just 50p. They were on their best before date and I figured we would use them up for tea.
Only we didn’t get through them all.
And you can guess the rest – by the following morning, in temperatures of 29 degrees, these juicy berries were reduced to a quivering mouldy mess:
What about you – any food waste this week?
I learned after much trial and error, not to wash strawberries until just before you eat them. Put them in a bowl with no lid in the fridge. Any moisture just makes them mold faster.
Wash any that you need to store, slice and sprinkle sugar on them them and stir, the sugar preserves them for a few days in the refrigerator. Seal in a container. My frugal grandmother told me this and she was right, no mold.
Strawberries go fast, don’t they? I try not to buy too many unless I know that we’re going to eat them or have time to freeze them. Even then, they sometimes mold. Otherwise, congratulations on a good week.
I have heard that rinsing fruits and veggies in a rinse of some part vinegar to a lot of part water keeps them longer(weeks apparently). I haven’t tried this out often enough to vouch for how it works, but in our produce departments they sell watered down vinegar in spray bottles for this reason.
To keep ripe strawberries a day or two longer, dip in a bowl of water with a splash of cider vinegar added. Allow to air dry, then store uncovered in the fridge.
I make sugar free jello and add the fruit to it, we’ve had it as much as a week later and it was still great tasting.