Have you ever bought a pack of strawberries only to find that 2 days later, most of them are squishy and starting to turn white? It’s so gross, and such a waste of money. It’s one of the reasons I never wanted to buy fresh produce because it just went bad so quickly.
After doing some research, I found a way to keep strawberries fresh that works for me, and makes the strawberries last at least a week.
What you need:
- A large bowl
- White distilled vinegar
- Water
- Colander
- Towel
- Strawberries
First, fill the bowl with a 10:1 ratio water to vinegar. So if you use 1 cup of vinegar, put in 10 cups of water; I usually just eyeball it and it turns out fine. Add the strawberries, making sure they’re mostly covered by the water, and let them sit for about 10 minutes.
Pour the strawberries into the colander, rinsing off the excess vinegar, then place them on the towel on your kitchen counter, spacing them apart so they dry faster. In my experience, putting wet strawberries in the fridge seems to make them go bad faster.
I let them sit for a couple hours, gently patting them dry when I’m ready to put them away. I leave the container lid slightly open, because I feel like that helps, but let me know if you have a different experience!
Doing all this, I’ve found my strawberries to last all week in the fridge (if we don’t eat them all by then), which is awesome. It cuts back on waste, which saves us money, and I hate essentially throwing away money. I do the same thing with blueberries too, and they seem to last just about as long as strawberries.
Do you use this method of cleaning, or do you do something different? Let me know what works for you!
Stephanie says
Thank you for this tip! Kroger has strawberries on sale for 4/$5 so we grab 4 and I was worried about them going bad. I’ll clean what we have left and hopefully they stay fresh longer.
Sandi says
I put my strawberries in a glass jar (large) unwased,and they last at least a couple of weeks.
Jaime says
Oh, nice!! I’ll have to try that!