This is just a fun post…but with some helpful shares. I love this kind of thing.
1. Store things upright
I love these ideas developed by artist Jihyun Ryou, using sensible “Grandma says it’s so” food storage concepts that save things longer, better.
Veggies grow in the ground standing up, so goes Jihyun’s explanation, based on traditional oral knowledge. Thus, they’d be happier waiting to be eaten while standing up, too, yeah? The sand also helps keep the right level of humidity to keep them fresh.
2. “Plant” your shallots
I personally do something similar to the above. When I buy a bunch of shallots (green onions), I store them in soil outside – in a pot among my herbs or flowers. They keep this way for months and I simply pull out a stem at a time. My Mum taught me this one.
3. Use your apples…
This one makes sense, too. Apples muck with other fruits and veggies (“one bad apple…”) so it’s good to keep them separately. The ethylene gases make carrots bitter, for example.
BUT, with potatoes – apples keep them from sprouting. So, store together, no?
4. Ripen your fruit
While talking apples: they can be used to ripen plums, pears and other fruits quickly. Handy.
5. Pair your bananas and avocados
I guess you could use the same device above for avocados and bananas… the latter rippen the former when placed in a paper bag.
6. Hull strawberries easily using a straw
Clever. Read how here.
7. Rub a walnut over scratches in your furniture
It will disguise dings and scrapes. Clever again. Here’s how.
8. Wrap your apple
Stop “cutted up” apples (what my little brother used to call them) browning in your kid’s lunch box by securing with a rubber band. Details here.
9. Freeze all your veggies in advance
See my post here for details.
10. Make a gutter garden
Create a window-box veggie patch using guttering. This would be great for an apartment, to run along the balcony. Lifehacker explains how here.
Have any special secrets you use? Tips for storing food outside the fridge?
It’s the Curiosity Show!
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Loving the spring Onion idea- so simple and clever!
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April 3rd, 2012 at 10:37 am
they last for months
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I’m confused. If you’re going to go to all the effort of planting and pulling up the plants, why not just plant spring onions as seeds or seedlings? It’s much cheaper
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Sarah,
Do you mean green spring onions? I always think of shallots as the bulb type onions or maybe Melbournians call them different things?!. Anyway, you don’t need to pull them all out. Just cut them off and leave about 1-2cm from the ground and they will re-sprout. Never need to buy them again!
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Sarah, your cabbage photos are just the best. Hope he’s having as much fun on the roadtrip as you!
Thanks for the laughs.
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Was gobsmacked by the cost of those ‘vertical garden’ units at the garden show last week, so love the gutter garden idea. Also the cutted up apples – my kids are 18 and nearly 20 and your’ little brother’ is a long leggedy beastie – I remember a great photo of you both up here somewhere! – but I am off to the kitchen now to make a cutted apple with a band on for tomorrow’s lunch, right now! So THAT’s what those charity wrist bands are really for! Lisa PS I eat the core, call me weird.
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