{"id":762,"date":"2010-06-09T21:35:42","date_gmt":"2010-06-09T21:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/?p=762"},"modified":"2010-06-09T21:35:42","modified_gmt":"2010-06-09T21:35:42","slug":"dont-blame-the-vegetables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/dont-blame-the-vegetables\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Blame the Vegetables!"},"content":{"rendered":"

They’re Not at Fault for Rotting in the Frig
\n<\/em><\/h3>\n

‘Tis the season of vegetable abundance, and with it comes worry about refrigerator rot as we begin loading up\u00a0 (and over-loading ) on the fabulous produce coming to market.\u00a0 As some people joke, don’t let your produce become expensive compost.<\/em><\/p>\n

Anytime I talk about buying and eating more vegetables, the subject of refrigerator rot surfaces.\u00a0 Seems there are a lot of dollars going down the garbage disposal, right along with the vegetables they bought.<\/p>\n

While people always ask for tips on how to prevent this, one participant at a recent Whole Kitchen class<\/a> worded the question in a way that got me stirred up.\u00a0 “How do I keep vegetables from going bad in my frig?” she asked.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Do your vegetables end up as expensive compost?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The good side of me acknowledged this as a completely reasonable question and gave a considered response about the fundamentals of vegetable storage.\u00a0 Meanwhile,\u00a0 however, my devilish side was jockeying for a chance to mouth off:\u00a0 “What?\u00a0 Are vegetables supposed to last forever?” it fumed.\u00a0 ” They’re called ‘fresh’ for a reason!\u00a0 Maybe the problem isn’t that vegetables don’t last long enough.\u00a0 Maybe the problem is that people don’t eat them up fast enough!”<\/p>\n

While I kept that inconsiderate imp in check at the time, I had to admit there was something to its rants.\u00a0 People faced with a case of vegetable rot are often taken aback.\u00a0 In a world where most foods have shelf lives measured in half-lives, it can seem surprising if not rude that vegetables would go bad on us.\u00a0\u00a0 Surely there must be something wrong with the vegetables or the way they are packaged, right?<\/p>\n

No, there is nothing wrong with the vegetables.\u00a0 They are living, breathing life forms, not processed and packaged products from factories.\u00a0 As life forms, they experience both a beginning and an end of life, and on the way to the end, they undergo a transformation from vibrant to rotted, just like all living things, including those on the top of the food chain.\u00a0 (More on this in tomorrow’s post.)<\/p>\n

Which brings me back to the snippy conclusion reached by my devilish side :\u00a0 What if the problem isn’t with vegetables, but with vegetable buyers who neglect their veggies?”<\/p>\n

Statistically, only one in ten of us come close to achieving the daily produce recommendations, and that’s only because potatoes are counted as a vegetable!\u00a0 So it’s not hard to imagine vegetables rotting in vegetable drawers due to simple neglect.\u00a0 That’s why my vegetable rot prevention advice begins here:\u00a0 Plan ahead.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Plan<\/strong><\/span> Grab a piece of paper, sketch a rough weekly plan and then plop one (or two or three!) vegetables on each day.\u00a0 At a minimum, simply steam or saute them as side dishes.\u00a0 For more fun, weave them into pasta dishes, soups, salads or entrees.\u00a0 Either way, planning makes it 85% more likely that those vegetables will actually make their way out of the frig and onto your plate.<\/li>\n
  2. Store Right<\/span> <\/span><\/strong> With that said, we can move on to storage, which is also important.\u00a0 As a general rule, leave vegetables unwashed, place in loosely closed plastic bags and get them into the frig as soon as possible.\u00a0 For different vegetables, there are variations on this general rule which can be found in Vegetable a Month<\/a> online magazine.<\/li>\n
  3. Don’t Cave in to Throw Away Mentality<\/strong><\/span> After a few days in the frig, you might assume a vegetable is no longer fresh and must be pitched.\u00a0 Not so fast.\u00a0 It’s easy to get sucked into our “throw away” mentality, but vegetables last a lot longer than you’d think, especially when purchased very fresh (an automatic advantage of buying local.)\u00a0 Even though I routinely overbuy vegetables, I rarely pitch anything since they generally last a week to ten days.*\u00a0 With just a little planning, that’s plenty of time to use them all up.<\/li>\n
  4. Stage Usage from Less to More Sturdy<\/strong><\/span> Improve your chances of success even more by planning to use the less sturdy\u00a0 vegetables in your crisper drawers (e.g., spinach, lettuce, zucchini, green beans and eggplant) before the sturdier ones (e.g., cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and peppers.)<\/li>\n
  5. Dig Deep for Vegetable Beauty<\/strong><\/span> Finally, even if a vegetable escapes notice until past its prime, no need to pitch it.\u00a0 Simply cut off any bad spots or pull away any wilted leaves and wash well.\u00a0 Taste to make sure the vegetable hasn’t gone bitter before adding to a dish.\u00a0 Cooking thoroughly can generally eliminate any possible contamination, but if you have any concern, go ahead and pitch a vegetable.\u00a0 Health and safety\u00a0 always trump vegetable conservation.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    But what do I make with all those vegetables? <\/strong>\"\"Lack of vegetable comfort may be the real culprit to blame for refrigerator rot.\u00a0 We tend to lack the basic vegetable knowledge that will have us reaching into the vegetable drawer each day with confidence.\u00a0 That’s where Vegetable A Month<\/strong><\/a> comes in.\u00a0 Each month, learn about a different, seasonal vegetable so you can weave it seamlessly into your everyday life–with all the good energy and wellness that comes with a vegetable rich diet.<\/p>\n

    Tomorrow:\u00a0 More on vegetable storage. . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    They’re Not at Fault for Rotting in the Frig ‘Tis the season of vegetable abundance, and with it comes worry about refrigerator rot as we begin loading up\u00a0 (and over-loading ) on the fabulous produce coming to market.\u00a0 As some people joke, don’t let your produce become expensive compost. Anytime I talk about buying and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27,22,32,1],"tags":[323,450,460,478,612,613,617],"class_list":["post-762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-make-vegetables-taste-good","category-healthy-cooking-money-savers","category-meal-planning-organization-in-the-kitchen","category-uncategorized","tag-how-to-store-vegetables","tag-planning-ahead","tag-prevent-vegetables-from-rotting","tag-refrigerator-rot","tag-vegetable-rot","tag-vegetable-storage","tag-vegetables-go-bad","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}