Produce for Long-Term Storage
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Note: most types of produce will be preceded by a picture of it or something in its general category so you can quickly scroll to the types of food you need info on. Because long-term unprocessed produce storage can have a lot of particulars that need to be stated, I see no reason why y’all should have to read an insanely long article just to get info on how to store the item you need to know about.
When we’re talking about vegetables (here, at least), we’re usually talking about fermentation, so we really never get to talk about produce that you can buy specifically because it lasts a long time just by being stored properly. Of course, you don’t want to be storing produce you don’t like, so it’s not that you should buying this stuff solely for its long-term capabilities, but rather buying it with intentionality so you can stretch it. Sometimes, it’s just better to preserve a food without having to preserve it!
As someone who had been a broke (grad) student for a lot of years, this was always something I thought about so I could more easily and inexpensively keep fresh produce in my diet. I like ramen a lot, but it is never something I want to be living on. All of these methods will work fine in an apartment, but some of them will work better if you’re in a house due to space considerations.
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The root of it all
Potatoes are great. A lot of y’all already know I’m a big potato pusher, so may as well do this one first! The first step you need to take is to sort your potatoes. Look at them carefully, remove any that have even a tiny sign of damage, and use those ones up first. Alternately, store the damaged ones you normally do and anticipate them having the more standard home lifespan you’re used to. In general, the standard “tossed in the pantry” method of potato storage will keep them for you for about 2-5 weeks. It depends on darkness, humidity, temperature, and type of potato, but that’s your general expected range when you store the taters like most of us do.
Potatoes really like a cool (45-50˚F/7-10˚C), humid (80-95%) environment. Root cellars or cold rooms are of course the best, but most of us don’t have those and we may not have the resources to construct one of our own. There are some methods for doing makeshift cellars with coolers, trash cans, and similar, but these require a small bit of lawn space.
The simplest way to hack this is to use boxes. I’m sure y’all’re constantly dealing with endless Amazon boxes, so the box part is pretty simple. You’ll cut some holes in the box for ventilation, and can use torn or shredded paper (old bills are great for this, since we all get that in the mail) and layer them in with the paper so they’re all nestled snugly in their beds. Don’t wash your potatoes before storing, but do brush off any dirt that’s on them. After that, you must add a lid because potatoes become toxic if they spend too much time exposed to light, then label it, put it in the coolest spot you’ve got in your home. If that spot is in the range that makes potatoes happy to sleep in, you can get up to 9 months out of them, depending on the variety.
Yes, up to 9 months. There are reasons potatoes are considered such a vital staple food, and their potential longevity is at the top of the list. #2 in my view is that potatoes+dairy=nutritionally complete meal. This is why the Great Potato Famine was such a big deal and killed so many people; with the failure of this vital crop, many Irish lost the single most important and abundant food available to them.
Don’t forget to poke through your potato box(es) every 3-4 weeks to make such no one is rotting in there! If you open a box and smell musky yuck, you need to dig through it and find the problem potato. Cull it from the herd, lest that rot spread to the others! Also make sure they’re nowhere near your stored onions or fruits, because the potatoes will sprout faster. Should that happen, you can plant those sprouty guys in a container or right into a prepared bed and grow some more for yourself!
If you’re in a temperate environment, you can simply stick them back in the ground for storage!
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Onions, shallots, and garlic! These humble alliums are part of the bedrock of flavor in most people’s meals, and you definitely don’t want to be without! Using the standard methods for pantry storage, you should anticipate about 1-2 months of shelf life. But you can get them to stay good for a looooooot longer, if you know what you’re doing! These all get stored the same way, so I’m just going to talk about onions and you guys now know it applies to all three.
First and most important thing to know: onions like a cool, dry spot. So if you don’t have a decently cool spot in your kitchen or dining area, skip the whole next paragraph. Second is that sweet onions will never last as long as the rest of them. Ever. Like, half as long max.
Y’all know those awesome, fun produce baskets that you buy, hang up somewhere, and then never really use? Those are for your onions, garlic, and shallots! The air flow is important for them to stay good for a long time, and using those sorts of open baskets or hanging jobbers, you can often get 6 months or more out of your onions. What you do not want to do (even though I totally do it for short-term storage), is store onions in the fridge: it’s too damp, so your onions will rot quickly. It’s a great idea to store onions in the fridge for about 30-60 minutes before you plan to cut them, though. Lot less crying if you do that.
No matter the method you use, definitely make sure you’re checking your onions, shallots, and garlic routinely for signs that some need to be used with a quickness. There will never be an instance in which you should leave compromised produce with that which is still keepin’ on: you’re looking to lose your food storage, if you leave them together. This is pretty much the case anytime you’re storing food out of the fridge. Some of you live by expiration dates on your packaged foods, but with long-term fresh you need to be routinely (I like every week or two, in most instances) checking that what you’re storing doesn’t need to be used up. This is basically food management, and I know it’s something most people in modernity really are not accustomed to needing to do. It’ll become a habit, I promise. With that, I’m going to stop telling y’all to check your stuff in each section and trust that the amount of words I’ve used to stress its import will be sufficient.
The video below talks about long-term storage of homegrown and cured onions, but I y’all can absolutely use this method if your onions are coming from the farmer’s market, co-op, or other spaces where they’ll have a bit of a longer stem remaining than is standard with grocery store onions.
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Carrots and Parsnips! Parsnips work identically to carrots, so I’ll mainly discuss carrots in this section.
The best way to store carrots is completely submerged in damp dirt. The dirt is your lid, so don’t need a real lid. The main reason that carrots get limp so quickly in the fridge is because they’re losing moisture in there. You can totally still use the limp ones for cooked applications, but never use a slimy carrot.
Carrots also like cool spaces, but at least they don’t like ‘em dry!
But wait! What if you buy yours with the greens, you say? Just cut those bad boys off and use them for salads, pesto, soups, added to other greens, or whatever strikes your fancy that day.
If you really do like storing your carrots in the fridge, the very best option is to store them in water. I know that sounds weird, but it works. You could do a big pitcher of carrots and water, mason jars, plastic food containers, or even Ziplock bags. I’m personally not brave enough to use Ziplocks, but y’all do what you like! These should keep up to a couple of months this way.
Some people keep pots of cactus soil or similar in their kitchens or wherever they have space and stick their carrots down in there whenever they get back from the grocery store. Whether you use bins or pot, you should get a good 4-6 months out of them!
Other roots!
Other roots! All of the other roots store in roughly the same ways. Keep in mind that in all cases, if you store your roots with the greens, the shelf life drops a lot. Greens are transient; roots are for long-term!
Kohlrabi: I’ve kept a manager’s special bag of kohlrabi in my crisper drawer for 2 months, and you know those discounted bags are not spring chickens by the time you buy them! Usually I test this stuff so I can tell y’all, but in that particular instance I was just curious for it’d fare, since prior experiments had led positive results but always were with fresher kohlrabi.
Most sources ask you to keep them wrapped in plastic or with damp paper towels, but mine went in with the mesh bag. Because kohlrabi is a softer kind of root (technically not even a root, but let’s pretend), you’re generally going to need to do something to it to preserve it longer, such as drying, fermentation, and so for.
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Beets: beets are a solid 3 months in the fridge if stored in a plastic bag or similar. 1-2 months without the bag, in my experience. If you’re looking for longer term than that, you simply go the sawdust route, per carrots. When you take the greens off your beets, make sure you save them and the stems. The leaves are used like you’d use chard (they’re related, in fact!), and the stems I use as a colorful replacement for celery.
Turnips and Rutabegas/Swedes: these bad boys get stored in the fridge similarly to kohlrabi, but they should last 4-5 months in there.
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Radishes: in the fridge, these will keep for a few weeks if they’re in a sealed bag or container with a damp paper towel. For long term, it’s boxes of leaves, hay, and straw! You can get at least a couple of months out of them that way. Also root cellars are great for radishes!
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Sweet potatoes: this is more like apples, where they want a cold cellar and are happiest if individually wrapped in newpaper or similar and stored in a well-ventilated space.
This is an unusually beautiful picture of horseradish.
Horseradish: I hang mesh bags of horseradish on my wall. These will dry out completely within a few months, but you can still use them.
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Fruits for the ages
Apples! Apples will keep a month or so in the fridge. They want the crisper drawer, and prefer to be in vented bags. You can use a mesh bag, or a plastic one with holes poked in it. Your call entirely! For long-term storage, you want to leave the stems on your apples. They store better that way. After that, sort them out, removing apples with any bruises or other blemishes. Apples are fussy that way, where they really can’t be around the “bad” ones without rotting faster. Larger apples rot more quickly, so always be aware that you need to use those first. After they’re sorted, wrap each one individually and store at 30-36F. Honeycrisps specifically want the warmer temp. Stored well, these will be good to go for about 4 months.
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Citrus! Citrus likes humidity. You can put your citrus in a big bowl of water and keep them that way for around 3 months. I haven’t tested this yet, but I’m about to because I’ve got 20 or so massive Meyer lemons in the fridge and I need the space for endless leftovers. I also need to schedule a leftovers dinner. You can replicate this in the fridge with sealed bags or containers, too, but this really doesn’t work as well as you’d want it to. In my experience, you can usually get 1-2 months out of citrus in the crisper drawer without doing anything special to it other than moving them around in the pile periodically. Make sure your lemons aren’t tightly stacked on each other, because then they get too moist and will start to mold. Fun times.
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Blueberries! No, these really don’t last a long time unless you “do stuff” to them, but they will keep in the fridge about two weeks. As far as berries go, that is long-term storage!
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Pomegranate! Pomegranate wants to be in a bag in the fridge, pretty much like apples. You’ve got two months out of these humble, glorious little fruits that way!
This video isn’t about storage, but this method for pomegranate really does work if you’ve got the patience to learn to do it properly! I learned to do this from a video, but you don’t cut the top off before doing it. This method is a lot easier to do than the blind scoring!
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Kiwi! I’ve done extensive testing on this, and I find that the crisper drawer will keep them for you for up to two months. Usually 6 weeks, but I’ve squeaked out those last couple lots of times. If you intend to keep your kiwi a long time or are buying in bulk, get the hardest ones. They will last a lot longer that way. Typically, I buy a lot of these and let them linger until they soften and sweeten, so Child Tester can have a supply that doesn’t require a weekly trip to the store for me!
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Avocadoes! You’re really not supposed to put these in the fridge, because it stops them from ripening. In my experience, though, it’s nice to have some hard avocados in there that you can put on the counter to finish ripening as needed. Fridged avocados that haven’t been opened will keep 2-3 weeks. They start looking pretty dodgy at the 3 week mark, and you should expect to trim out the overripe parts of the fruit.
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Water lovers
Herbs! You have a couple of options here, but they involve water or soil. Herbs generally will be happiest if you put them in a cup of water. Some of these will root into new plants if you don’t use them fast enough, which seems like no small gift! I currently am in my third week of keeping parsley in a jar of water on the counter (no roots, sadly), and there’s no wilting. You also can keep that jar in the fridge, which will make them happy too.
If you decide you’d rather buy the live herbs, these are grown hydroponically before they get to the store. You can continue to grow them in water, or you can give them little soil homes. Your call, but I would treat live herbs like new plants you got, even though they’re plants you’re eating. If you continue to grow them indoors, they will be good to go year round so long as they get new water periodically or their soil is watered.
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Green onions are particularly easy. These go in a small amount of water, just like herbs, except room temperature. Make sure you change the water every few days, but you can keep green onions indefinitely this way. They will grow roots, and their tops will get taller, so you just lop off what you need when you’re cooking and let the rest keep growing.
I keep a pot in soil outside, and a cup inside. I once planted a scallion in a kumquat pot, and had it 5-6 years before I gave it away a couple of years ago to my friend Kamie’s daughter. I can’t remember how many years, but pretty sure at least 2. That onion is still alive. I also stick these randomly in other potted plants I have, and those are always alive for years and years, too.
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Broccoli is super easy, and also can be done in the fridge or room temperature. Cut off about an inch of the stem and put the whole thing in about an inch of water. I’m not sure if these will regrow leaves or make new flower stems (the broccoli that we eat are unopened flowers), but please let me know if this happens for you!
Yes, that’s right! You can treat your leeks like your scallions! I’m really not clear as to why people don’t use the upper part (called “the flag”) of the leek. I find that although you do need to cook them a bit more than the lower portions, they hold up better to long cooking and also are very flavorful.
In the fridge, the standard expectation is that you can get about 2 weeks out of leeks, stored in plastic bags. Sometimes mine are in bags, sometimes not, but my personal experience is that they start looking a little peaked around a month in but still can be used at least another week.
If you want to store them in a mock sort of “overwintering” situation, you’d place them in soil, mound hills of soil around them, top with hay or straw, and then overwinter in your cold room or cellar. I’m not sure this is really viable for people who don’t have a particularly cooler area in their home.
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Our randos
Winter squashes! They all store for ages. I still have 4 whole squashes in my pantry that are leftover from Halloween. With these, they want to be in a cool, dark space. I keep mine in the pantry to make it easier to check for soft spots every week or two. If there’s a soft spot, that squash needs to be used soon. In general, though, I buy however many winter squashes I’d like around Halloween, and I usually finish the last one in early summer. Remember also that these squashes are really versatile, capable of being well used for both sweet and savory applications.
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Cabbage! Cabbages are fantastic, long-lasting produce! They want to last as long as possible, same as squash.
Cabbages are happiest in the fridge, wrapped in cling film. You should expect a lifespan of 2-3 months if stored this way and used correctly. What’s that mean, “used correctly”? It means stop cutting your cabbages. Peel off the leaves you need rather than cutting the head, rewrap, toss back in the fridge. Very important not to cut it if you want it to last, because once it’s “open” it needs to be used within about a week.
Cauliflower should be stored in its original packaging once all its leaves are removed. You should get about 2 months in the fridge from it. Some people use a damp paper towel, though I do not. I assume the ones who do are bothered by the brown bits that signal oxidation. Not rot, contrary to what we were all taught as kids!
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Celery! It can last 2 months in the fridge without special preparation, but it won’t be happy about it. Not happy at all. But they’ll do it. On 24 November, I bought two heads of celery. One I stored without any special prep, and I just finished the wilted core last week. The second head of celery was stored in foil, and it looks brand new. Wrap it up in foil and it’ll keep at least two months in good condition.
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Chiles! You have 2 options here for fresh storage, with a bonus natural consequences option! You can keep them room temperature for a week or two, and here is where the bonus comes in: make sure you turn the chiles every few days, because if you don’t use them fast enough you’ll want to toss them in a jar once they’re fully dried (you’ll hear the seeds rattling around when you shake them). The second option is to fridge them in a bag. Conventional wisdom says 2-3 weeks, my experience says a month.
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Lettuce! Here’s our surprise vegetable, because no one ever seems to know that their lettuce can last more than a few days. There are two kinds of lettuces: head and leaf. This is important. Head lettuces, the ones that come in compact heads like iceberg, can go 3-4 weeks. No I’m not kidding. My most recently head of iceberg, which I really just keep so I can peel off a leaf each day for our rabbit, has been in my fridge since 24 December. I’m about 2/3 of the way through it and it’s still just as fresh as when I bought it! Leaf lettuces will go up to 2 weeks.
For all lettuces, you need to do it the same as cabbage, except that if the lettuce came in it own bag, it should stay in its own bag.
Ross asked me during a lunch break to remind y’all that when you’re in the produce section of the store, look at how the store shelves them. Grocery stores have a vested interest in keeping the produce good for as long as is possible so they can avoid binning any of it, so how they do it generally does conform to industry standards on getting the most life out of produce. I’d forgotten completely about this optimally simple advice, but he is SPOT ON!
Lastly, I want to offer this delightful video on produce storage so you’ve got some extra visual references and life hacks. Happy storing!
