Avoiding waste with fresh vegetables - any hints?

Pretty much any veg can be used in a smoothie or soup. That"s how I use up mine.

Carrots keep a week or more in the crisper part of my fridge as long as they were dry when they went in, often they're damp so I lay em out on kitchen towel for a few hours before storing loose stood upright on their root end on a piece of dry kitchen towel.

Broccoli keeps up to a week if I cut a sliver off the stem and leave it in a glass of water for an hour or so, if it's a bit limp it will take the water up and firm up again. Then I store in fridge in a plastic bag with air-holes but careful not to let it touch the broc as condensation will start a bit of mould, every couple of days I take it out of the bag to wipe off the condensation and blot the broc with kit towel before returning to fridge.

Round lettuce and Little Gem type will take up water too so I cut a sliver off base and leave in a shallow bowl with a little water, then store in fridge in the base of a 2ltr ice-cream tub covered with a plastic bag with air-holes.

Yes!

1.) Place a large kettle of water on the stove on low to medium heat.
2.) Prep ALL your fresh veggies in the manner that you find advantageous*
3.) Place ALL scraps and cut-aways into your kettle of water - keep it at a low simmer (add a pinch or two of good sea salt for flavor and to help the water boil)
4.) Continue to fill your kettle with:
Carrot tops, veggie skins, perhaps mushroom stems, the "white" part inside all your peppers, etc.

* Some people like carrots with skins on, some don't, etc.

Please consider buying only organic produce from your local PSA, or Farmer's market. It does no one any good to buy "organic" produce that had to fly 4,000 miles in a jet to reach you! Scrub the veggies good and clean before you prep them.

Hints on storage:

1.) Try to buy only what you can eat within 5-7 days.
a.) Try shopping with a friend, prep together for the social benefit, and you can have twice the diversity of produce ( or three times if you ask two friends to join you)
2.) Go to www.fenugreen.com and learn about (and purchase) "Fresh Paper", which keeps produce 2-4x longer. It works. Trust me.
3.) If you want produce to ripen, put it in a brown bag. Conversely, do not use brown bags on "almost" ripe produce that you are trying to keep longer. You can simply dump your prepped veggies in your bottom fridge drawer and place a Fresh Paper sheet in the bin; no need for bags.
4.) Keep condensation at bay by placing a very clean, fresh towel in the bin along with your Fresh Paper.
5.) If lettuce needs cleaning, do it right a way; wash it, spin it; empty water out of spinner; repeat until there is no more water in the spinner. Then (yes, you're getting the hang of it!), store you leafy produce (not only lettuce, but spinach, kale, etc.) in the spinner itself, with a small clean towel and a Fresh Paper.
6.) Do NOT wash berries until right before you are going to eat them; they will spoil over night.
7.) Consider getting a food dryer to handle over flow on any fruit you have bought. Found a sale on grapes at .89 cents a pound and can't resist buying three pounds? Clean grapes, pat dry, place in your food dryer, and in two days you will have homemade raisins that will knock you socks off!
8.) Consider blanching, then freezing your "extra my eyes are too big for my head" produce. This is best done with a vacuum pack machine. First, bring a big pot of water to a roiling boil. Then gently place ALL your veggies in; this will cause the water to cool down. When the water comes back to a rolling boil again, spoon your produce out right away and place on a clean towel. Pat dry. When the produce is bone dry, wrap it in saran wrap and place inside a good quality zip lock bag. Always mark the date! This is the "poor man's" version. Better yet, when your material is bone dry, place it in a vacuum bag and run thru your machine to create a seal.

There's lot's more I can think of, but I'll finish with this. You can save that veggie broth in your fridge for up to 5 days. Use it to cook your rice. Use it as a soup starter. Freeze the rest, and remember to always mark your date and what it is!

Hope this is helpful.

Best,

SpecialK

I love to have part of the vegies as a salad the next day. Raw day one, and then cooked day two in a soup or casserole. I find that many of the vegies are ingredients for other dishes.