Growing a crop or stocking up on vegetables from farmers? Now you need to pack the potatoes, onions and garlic for storage so that they do not spoil longer.
In late summer and early autumn, many stock up on potatoes, garlic and onions: someone digs himself in the country, and someone buys while it is sold inexpensively. Question: how now to store vegetables in an ordinary city apartment? Wday.ru asked competent specialists about this.
Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Vice-Rector for Research, Moscow State University of Food Production
Store vegetables in a cool, dark place. It should not be warm, because the higher the temperature, the more likely it is to mold and rot. For cucumbers, peppers, you need to provide a temperature and humidity regime: wrap them in a damp cloth, and they will be stored for a long time, will not lose moisture, will not become flabby and will retain their original appearance for a long time.
When storing potatoes at home, first of all, you need to wash it, or even better – dry it and, not mine, free it from excess soil and the like. Then place it in a cool dark place. These are the basic guidelines.
Their shelf life depends on the type of vegetables, on the time they are harvested. Of course, you need to observe the vegetables and remove the rotten ones in time.
If the apartment has a refrigerator, a cellar in the kitchen, and a balcony, then this gives a great opportunity to stock up and see where what is best preserved. I recommend putting potatoes in a cupboard under the window, and other vegetables in the refrigerator.
By the way, it is better to separate fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator with a partition so that they do not touch, since they have different ripening and storage periods. Fruits can go bad a little earlier and affect vegetables.
The storage area for onions and garlic should be cool, dry and dark. They need to be removed from plastic bags and put into a wooden box, paper bag or string bag or nylon stocking, as our mothers and grandmothers used to do. Otherwise, microorganisms will begin to multiply in an airless space and decay will begin. You can put a box of vegetables under the sink, or hang a stocking in a closet.
It doesn’t matter whether you store the whole garlic or cut it into cloves, but in my opinion, the whole is better.
You should not store onions and garlic in the refrigerator, where there is a lot of humidity and everything quickly damp, and their smells can absorb other foods. In addition, the garlic there quickly begins to grow and dries out.
Onions and garlic have no shelf life, they are good to eat until they dry out or rot. This is a rather unpredictable storage product. As long as the presentation remains, they can be eaten.