Keeping it fresh

So I have been a little bad with updating with new posts. OK, I have been awful about it. Hopefully I will have some time this week to finish up some late posts and get them on here.

Is back-posting a no-no in the bloggersphere? Oh well, who will know.. :)

In the meantime there is one pin I found working today in the back of my fridge. As I noted before my fridge is the place where vegetables go to die. I have to admit that celery is one of the most common victim. I usually end up buying it for a recipe (or oh a whim), use 10% then the rest wilts and decomposes into a slimy mess in the back corners of the fridge.

Now I can't find the original pin (likely part of one of those list of tips) but it is a quick and easy to explain so here it goes.

1. Trim the bottom of the celery
2. Place in a tall cup with a little bit of water

So far the typical storage advice. I think what makes it work is the next step...

3. Place a plastic bag over the celery
4. Place in fridge

This worked great for me. My celery was in the fridge for over a month (probably more like 6 weeks) and I took it out today and had a piece. It was fresh tasting and crisp (probably better than the day I bought it).

 I would recommend this method for longer time storage.

Lettuce Have Fun!

Source: threepsandq.wordpress.com
via Tanya on Pinterest

So my pin projects have been put on hold with the nice summer weather (living in a place where we usually only have a 1-2 month summer at most you take advantage of any warm weather you get).

Last Friday as I was making a quick salad before heading out for the weekend I remembered this pin on re-growing lettuce and tossed the stub in a small bowl of water before heading out.

Easy as that!

When I arrive home a few days latter there was already lettuce sprouting. By Wednesday there were a few tiny leaves making me think this just may work.

5 Days Growth

It has only been a week so I am not sure how much lettuce I will get, but since the stub was going to be tossed anyway it was at least worth the try.  

Onions first purchased from
  store 2.5 months ago

As an update I had also tried to re-grown green onions with good success. As noted in this post the roots and onions started to get a little slimy when not rinsed often. They finally reach the point when the roots were getting too long and looked like the slime was taking over. Since the weather was now nice, and I have a small vegetable garden, I decided to try planting them outside. a few weeks later most of them are still growing (those that didn't make it looked as though they may have been pulled up by some local animals).

Growing Green Onions

When I saw this pin it was so perfect! Whenever I get green onions I find I only use 20% then the rest eventually die in my fridge. The idea is so simple that I couldn't believe I haven't been doing this for years.

Source: homemadeserenity.blogspot.com via Tanya on Pinterest

You just take your remaining green onions and place them in a container with a little water and they continue to grow and provide fresh green onions whenever needed.

I first gave this a try over a month ago. The biggest problem was that they kept on growing and I wasn't using them fast enough. I had to trim them back  more that I was using them.

A week and a half ago I finally had a recipe that required a 1/2 cup of green onions and was able to use the full bunch for the first time since I bought them a month earlier.





1 1/2 weeks growing.

Conclusion: This works great. The onions grow fast and keep fresh for a long time. I have found that I need to drain the water and rinse the base of the onions at least once a week to keep them from getting slimy.

Even if this doesn't last forever it is well worth it as I have received at least 2X more onions then expected when I originally bought them

For the Love of Veggies

If you are at all like me you have a fridge full of limp veggies that you bought will all intentions of eating. You start off well, you did buy them with a plan to eat them after all, but leftovers get pushed to the back where it will eventually waste away, shrivel up, or turn into a pile of goo, to be remove the day you eventually get around to cleaning your fridge.

I do get pangs of regret as I toss out these forgotten veggies. This problem generally only happens in the winter months (which in Canada is from October to June) as I am able to select only as much as a need from my small, yet fairly productive, garden during the summer. The rest continues to grow waiting for the day when I need to return for some more.

With this in mind I have started to become interested in re-growing veggie from things you get at your local grocery store. This solves two problems for me: 1. I do not have to feel as bad about the shrivelled up veggies I am about to toss as part of it will continue to live on; 2. I am able to grow new vegetables that I can enjoy and only harvest as much as I need. It also helps that I can  be a little cheap, and this way I get 2 for the price of 1.

When I saw this pin on growing celery from the discarded end I wanted to give it a try next time I brought some home from the store. I enjoy celery, but it has to be #1 veggie that is destined to never leave my fridge looking the same as when it went in.



Source: chickensintheroad.com via Tanya on Pinterest

 

About 2 weeks ago the opportunity arrive. After I finished cutting up what I needed, and placing the remainder in the fridge, I placed the bottom piece in a bowl with water. It probably sat there for about a week before I had time to think about it again. By this time I could see a few little roots develop. Since it is not fit to plant outside here in April I decided to plant it indoors with the plan to transplant it into the garden once it is warm enough.

And if you were wondering, yes the rest of the celery that I had placed in the fridge is still there waiting to be tossed.