What's the best way to store produce?
 

I buy celery and carrots sometimes to make soups and sometimes other recipes, but I find I don't make them fast enough and they always go bad. How do I store them? I don't have any vacuum-seal appliances and that's the only way I can think of to store them.



I've lost celery (have some dying in my fridge now actually), carrots, green onions, lemons, oranges, bananas, and other things. I don't want to waste anymore food or money (I try not to waste any food at all) but I'm finding it is too difficult to buy them and use them.

You're working with organic materials known to have a shelf life. Best thing you can do is plan out for use on this stuff in the week you buy it. If you're using stuff for soup, make the soup and refrigerate that. Once the veges are all cooked and in the soup, they'll last a lot longer than they will as a fresh veg in the fridge. Bananas will last a bit longer in a fridge, but only by a few days. Things like this, again, last as long as they last. There's no secret container to make it last a week longer. This is going to happen with the healthy stuff you buy that's not pumped full of preservatives, unfortunately.

Welcome to modern produce. Buy it when you need it. Produce used to last a lot longer because the farm-to-shelf time used to be a lot shorter.

^And more local. I hate the winter months on the east coast with all our tasteless produce being brought across the country from the mass production farms of CA. Only way to go is smaller, local markets that support your farmers if you want real taste and quality.