In or OUT? Together or Apart?

I learned something new today about fruit and veggie storage.

I learned that you should never keep apples and oranges together in the same bowl. Apparently they both give off gases that make the other fruit go bad more quickly. If they are ripe enough, they should be stored in the fridge and will last about a month!

Tomatoes, on the other hand, should NOT be refrigerated unless you have cut them. Tomatoes CAN be refrigerated, but refrigeration changes them so that they will have a mealy sort of texture.

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cherokeepatti · 61-69, F

And ripe bananas give off a gas that can make greener ones ripen faster. Don’t store onions and potatoes together either.

4meAndyou · F

@cherokeepatti Onions and potatoes for the same reason? The gasses they give off?

cherokeepatti · 61-69, F

@4meAndyou I believe it’s the gas from the onion that will spoil the potatoes quicker.

4meAndyou · F

@cherokeepatti Well, THAT explains a lot. I have one of those double tiered storage baskets on my countertop, and I used to keep BOTH the onions and potatoes stacked one veg on top of the other. Lots of potatoes went bad.

Eventually I bought a macrame net bag and hung the potatoes about 5 feet distant, and that worked much better. NOW I don't eat potatoes anymore, so...NOT an issue.

cherokeepatti · 61-69, F

@4meAndyou some people like to store their potatoes in a dark place. I had a neighbor one time who told me her mother told her to put them in the closet and keep the door closed to keep out the light. She did and forgot about them and started smelling them and it was rotten potatoes by then. I think it the closet next to the kitchen that had a folding door. She hadn’t cooked potatoes for quite a while and forgot about them.

4meAndyou · F

@cherokeepatti The deadbeats who skipped out on their rent so that I had sheriff's notices posted on my door out in the hallway ALSO put their potatoes in the kitchen closet and allowed them to rot.

When I moved in, the effluvia from their rotten potatoes had soaked into the untreated fiber board floor of the closet, and the smell would NOT die until I painted the fiberboard heavily with acrylic paint and sealed it.