Advise for storing fruit and vegies while away on holidays

I often hear people complain about lack of fresh, green salad vegies when away from town for more than a week or so. It’s sometimes impossible to buy fresh vegies other than staples such as spuds and onions. One solution is to limit yourself to vegetables that travel well. Potatoes, sweet potato, carrots, onions, eggplant, zucchini and fresh fruits (when available) like oranges, grapefruits, apples.

A useful tip for storing vegies out of the fridge is to wrap each individual vegetable or fruit in one or two sheets of newspaper and store them out of direct sunlight. A well ventilated, open cardboard, foam or wooden box is best. Cover with an old towel or blanket to help keep help the heat out. Avoid using plastic crates or eskies with lids as the fruit and vegie tends to get hot and sweat and ripen more quickly. Using this method, vegetables and fruit last for weeks

Potato Hints

• Keep potatoes where it's cool, dark and well-ventilated.
• Their ideal temperature is 45 to 50 degrees. Temperatures over 50 degrees will cause sprouting and fast decay.
• Storage under 40 degrees will cause starches to convert to sugar, resulting in a "sweet" taste and the potatoes turning dark when fried.
• Too much light will turn potatoes green and make them taste bitter.
• To clean, scrub potatoes gently with a sponge or vegetable brush.
• When peeling, use a vegetable parer to keep the peelings thin because many of the nutrients are close to the skin.
• Sprinkle potatoes with lemon juice to keep them from turning brown.