Food prices, especially staples like maize, have already begun to soar due to the current drought and weakening rand throughout the country. Your monthly groceries are set to continue dwindling as the year goes, so it’s a vital time to start thinking about how you can save food and make it last for longer periods. Here are a few tips:
Store your rooted veggies in pots with clean sand and take them out, wash them as you need.
Store your onions in a pantyhose so that they do not mould and last as long as 8 months.
Make sure you dry green onions and freeze them in a plastic bottle.
Chop up your green/yellow/red peppers and freeze them in a plastic container and use them when you need to. You can also pickle most veggies to increase their shelf life.
Get an ethylene gas absorber for your fridge. This will make sure it absorbs all the ethylene gas (necessary plant hormone for fruit and veggies to ripen) emitted by fruits and vegetables.
Adding vinegar to your berries will make them last longer. All you have to do is add one part vinegar and 10 parts water in a bowl, add and rinse your berries in it and then store in your fridge.
Do not store onions with potatoes as they will spoil faster but do store potatoes with apples to keep them from sprouting.
Polystyrene prevents vegetables like mushrooms from breathing, which makes them spoil faster. Take food out of the polystyrene and add it onto a container and leave the container open.
Sprinkle some water on vegetables like celery and chopped carrots stored in a container to keep them fresh.
Store your herbs in a plastic wrap and use a rubber band to secure before you store them in the fridge, they will last much longer.
Oily herbs like thyme last longer if they are tied together and hung up in the cupboard to get some air.
Check your apples and tomatoes daily to see if any have begun to rot because one rotten apple/tomato spoils the whole bunch.
Add a bit of butter on the cut side of cheese before you put it back into the fridge to make it last longer. Put cheese in a wrap bag or container and seal to prevent it from hardening, place it in the warmest part of your fridge.
Wrap bananas before storing them and keep them away from other fruits as they contain a large amount of ethylene gas that makes other fruits spoil faster.
Use a paper towel on top of lettuce when storing it. It soaks in the moisture and makes sure the lettuce doesn’t get soggy too quickly.
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