How To Store Your Share 3

We know that many of our shareholders leave for Thanksgiving break fairly early, and we bet that many of you will have a hard time finishing your share before you leave town. To help you out, we've compiled some info about how to properly store each item of your share before you leave to make sure it'll last till you return to PVD.

Happy Thanksgiving from the whole BMSP Team!
-Anna, Antonia, Blain, Carlie, Erin, Estelle, Jenna, Maddy, Meg, Taylor L., Taylor S., and Wesley.

General Storage Guidelines:

1. Do Not Store Fruits and Vegetables Together. Fruits that give off high levels of ethylene (the ripening agent) can prematurely ripen and spoil surrounding vegetables. (Think of the "one bad apple" adage.)
• Also, do not store root vegetables and onions together, as they will spoil faster.
2. For Vegetables: Before storing, remove ties and rubber bands and trim any leafy ends. Leave an inch to keep the vegetable from drying out. Make sure the bag you store the veggies in has some holes punctured to allow for good air flow. Pack vegetables loosely in the refrigerator. The closer they are, the quicker they will rot. Leafy greens can be washed before storing by soaking them in a sink full of water.
3. Storage Buddies This Week (can be kept in bags together to save plastic!):
   -Leeks, carrots, radishes, turnips
   -Kale, lettuce, herbs
   -Sweet potatoes
   -Apples, cranberries

How to Store Your Share 2

Every season we get lots of questions about how to store certain items, and hear from shareholders that items are going bad quickly because they weren't stored properly. Never fear! We are here to intervene early on in the season.

Four Tips for All Items:

1. Do not store anything in direct sunlight or in overly hot places. It will ripen and start to rot very quickly.

2. Do not store items loose on fridge shelves. Put everything in plastic bags, or it will wilt very quickly.

3. Keep different types of items separate from each other (fruits and vegetables, onions and potatoes). The hormones they release will have different effects on the others, causing accelerated ripening, fiber decay, etc.

4. TAKE THE TIME TO STORE YOUR ITEMS! I certainly have been known to give in to the urge to shove my whole tote bag in the fridge after carrying home my share, but believe me, investing the time in doing it right early on will keep a lot of items from going to waste.

Some Tips for Storing Your Share

During the first week of the summer share, I will admit; I let my radishes go soft and squishy. Then I realized “I need to take care of my veggies!” Each week, we receive a plethora of fresh vegetables, which will inevitably have a shorter lifespan than canned or frozen veggies, so we should store our shares correctly in order to get the most time and best tastes out of the share.

Some common mistakes:

• Make sure you are cutting the greens off of your carrots, beets, turnips, etc. The greens will suck the nutrients out of the root vegetable and they will wilt faster. 
• Take off the rubber bands that keep your produce together. Let your veggies breathe!

Be sure to look out for the little signs on the veggie boxes during each week’s pickup that remind you how to best store each item. But, if you ever forget, feel free to look at this infographic we posted a while back.

If you have a bread share, you’ll want to seal your bread in a paper or plastic bag in order to keep it fresh, if it makes it past Thursday. If you’re feeling fancy Food52 sells these snazzy bread bags/wraps:

Linen Bread Bags

Bee's Baguette Wrap

Happy eating!

Maddy Rotman

Program Development Intern

How to Store Your Share

Click READ MORE below for information about how to store your share if you're going away over break. (We recommend that you try to eat your greens before you leave - but if you can't, don't worry, they'll last till you get back.)



Image from Cook's Illustrated.

Storing your share for spring break

With spring break around the corner, we wanted to provide you with a share that will last through the break since many of you will be away.

How to best store your veggies!

Check out this awesome produce storage guide from Berkeley Farmers' Markets, and keep your veggies looking and tasting their best all week long!

Here are the details for items in this week's share: