How to reduce food waste at home with fruit

Repurpose Food is a LiveBest series where I share delicious ways to reduce food waste. Join me as we repurpose fruit to create bestovers - one delicious bite at a time!

Easy tips, tricks and recipes: ways to reduce food waste at home using fruit.

grapefruit avocado salad

Grapefruit Avocado Salad

How to store fruit

There is no denying the deliciousness of fresh fruit. But keeping it has challenges.

It is fragile. Moisture, temperature and storage impact how long it lasts. Stored improperly, it can go bad quickly and ultimately get thrown away.

If your produce rots after just a few days, you might be storing incompatible fruits (and vegetables) together. Those that give off higher levels of ethylene gas, a ripening agent, will speed the decay of those sensitive to the gas. However, you can also use this gas to your advantage. Put them in a brown paper bag to take advantage of the trapped ethylene gas to ripen, such as pears, peaches, avocados.

What temperature do you store fruit?

Store at room temperature: bananas, pineapple, ginger, winter squash, eggplant, and basil (in a glass of water, like a bouquet).

Ripen at room temp, then refrigerate: avocado, kiwifruit, melon, peaches, pears, plums, mangos. Chilling damages the enzymes that help create the flavors of some fruit.

Purchase ripe, then refrigerate  berries, cherries, grapes, watermelon, pineapple and citrus when they are fully ripe because the flavors won’t develop after picking.

How to refrigerate fruit

The general rule of thumb is to put fruits and veggies that emit ethylene gas in one drawer with the lever open, allowing those gases to escape.

Cook’s Note: Foods that wilt go in the high humidity drawer, with the lever closed. The moisture keeps the greens crisper and fresher longer. Keeping fruits and vegetables that are sensitive to ethylene gas, like strawberries, in this drawer will also keep them away from ethylene producers.

Gas Releasers Gas Sensitive
Avocados Bananas, ripe
Apricots Broccoli
Apples Brussels sprouts
Bananas, unripe Cabbage
Cantaloupe Carrots
Figs Cauliflower
Kiwi Cucumber
Nectarines Eggplant
Peaches Lettuce
Plums Peppers
Tomatoes Strawberries

Repurpose fruit deliciously to reduce food waste

  • Add ripe fruit to smoothies. Freezing keeps it convenient.
    • Peel ripe bananas before storing in a zip-top bag.
    • Spread fruit in a single layer on a baking sheet. Freeze, then store in zip-top bags.
  • Roast pineapple, pears, grapes or strawberries. Broil grapefruit or oranges.
  • Cook fruit into a compote or jam.
  • Add to a salad, like this Cherry Herb Cheese Salad.
  • Pickle it quick. Combine 4 tablespoons vinegar + 1 tablespoon sugar in a bowl, add fruit so that it’s cover. Let sit 20 minutes.
  • Infuse water to make flavored water. Add fruit to a pitcher of water. Store in the refrigerator.
  • Make sangria. Fruit pairs well with red or white wine.
  • If you are regularly throwing away fresh, buy frozen or canned.
Try these recipes to repurpose fruit

OverNight Oats are a great way to use fruit.

Blend fruit into a Berry Banana Smoothie or Cherry Amaranth Almond Smoothie.

Cook fruit into a jam such as Strawberry Rhubarb Ginger Jam.

Chop fruit to use in a salsa, such as Watermelon Salsa.

Blend it to make a sauce such as Mango Jalapeño Dressing.

See more ideas to repurpose cheese, vegetables, bread

How do you repurpose fruit?

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berry banana smoothie

Best ways to store produce to save money. Some go int eh fridge and some prefer a pantry. Repurpose Food is a LiveBest series where I share delicious ways to reduce food waste. Join me as we repurpose fruit to create bestovers - one delicious bite at a time! www.LiveBest.info

Comments

  1. So informative and creative. This site is an absolute necessity for new cooks and grandma cooks like me.

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