Spoiling the Bunch

 One bad apple can really spoil the bunch and the same may be said for bananas, cantaloupes, and a number of other fruits and vegetables. It is all due to a plant hormone called ethylene.

Ethylene is a natural plant hormone released in the form of a gas. It triggers cells to degrade, fruit to turn softer and sweeter, leaves to droop, and seeds or buds to sprout. While some fruits and vegetables are high ethylene producers, others are more sensitive to it.

You can use this knowledge to extend the life of your produce by keeping certain items separate in the fruit bowl or refrigerator drawer. Ethylene is the reason you should not store onions and potatoes together. Ethylene may also be used when you want to accelerate ripening. This is the principle behind placing unripe fruit inside a paper bag or other closed container, which concentrates the ethylene. Adding another high ethylene fruit, such as a ripe apple or banana, may also speed up the process.

Ethylene producing foods include: apples, apricots, avocados, bananas, blueberries, cantaloupe, cranberries, figs, green onions, guavas, grapes, honeydew, kiwifruit, mangoes, nectarines, papayas, passion fruit, peaches, pears, persimmons, plums, potatoes, prunes, quince, and tomatoes.

Ethylene sensitive foods include: Asparagus, blackberries, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, chard, cucumbers, eggplant, endive, garlic, green beans, kale, leeks, lettuce, okra, onions, parsley, peas, peppers, raspberries, spinach, squash, strawberries, sweet potatoes, watercress, and watermelon.

Bottom line, separate your fruits and veggies to let them ripen naturally, unless you are in a hurry, then pair them up to speed the process.

Top Ten Fruit Savers

Keep broccoli, and celery, and lettuce their crispest by wrapping them in tin foil before storing them in the refrigerator. Celery will stay crisp for four weeks or more, lettuce heads up to six weeks, and broccoli up to seven weeks.

To store carrots, cut off the greens and place them in a plastic bag before sticking them in your crisper drawer. Carrots will keep for up to two weeks. BTW - Carrots do not improve your eyesight and will not help you see better at night.

Cherries should be refrigerated in a plastic bag, but not washed until ready to eat, because moisture hastens mold where stems meets the fruit.

In warm weather, avocados will ripen fast, but don’t store avocados in the refrigerator unless they are cut, otherwise the cold will turn them black inside. To keep them at their most palatable state, spritz a bit of lemon or lime juice, or another acidic agent, and place in an air-tight container or tightly covered clear plastic wrap.

Apples  are a year-round delight, but some the most flavorful kinds (e.g. Gala, Ginger Gold, Pink Lady) make their appearance during the summer. During the warmer months, apples should be stored in the fridge, while in the fall; they can be stored on the counter. When storing apples in the fridge, drape a damp paper towel over the container of apples instead of a top. Do not put them in a drawer or air-tight container. Both the cold temperature and the moisture will help them stay their freshest for up to several weeks.

What's a summer BBQ without some grilled corn? When storing corn, keep the husks on, but cut away the shank (this part of the grain is a magnet for worms). Put your corn in a plastic bag and place it in your refrigerator's crisper. The corn will remain at its freshest for two days. While the corn will start to dry out after day two, but will still remain edible.

Melons will keeps for about 10 days in the cold temperature, but are most flavorful at room temperature. Take your melon out of the fridge and allow it to warm for about 30 minutes before serving.

Peaches and nectarines should be bought firm, but stored at room temperature once you have them home. Do not put them in the fridge before they are ripe, as chilling them before that will result in fruit that is mealy and flavorless. They should keep for a few days before they begin to lose their flavor.

More Salt Facts

Salt is a terrific flavor enhancer, helping to reduce bitterness and acidity, and bringing out other flavors in the food.
Adding salt to bread dough controls the action of the yeast and improves the flavor. Bread made without salt will have a coarser texture and a blander flavor than bread made with salt.
Try sprinkling salt on citrus fruit, melons, tomatoes, and even in wine to enhance flavor.
Adding a little salt balances the flavor of sweets like cakes, cookies, and candies.
Boiling eggs in salted water makes them easier to peel.
Adding a pinch of salt (preferably non-iodized) to cream or egg whites before they are whipped increases their volume and serves as a stabilizer.
Salt is a mineral, so it can be stored indefinitely without going stale. It won't taste any fresher if you grind it with a salt mill.
Salt has been used for millennia as a preservative for meats, fish, cheese, and other foods. It works by absorbing moisture from the cells of bacteria and mold through osmosis, which kills them or leaves them unable to reproduce.
Salting slices of eggplants helps draw out the bitter juices.

Chocoholics Rejoice

Everyone knows the importance of eating vegetables and chocolate is a vegetable. Chocolate is made from cacao beans and sugar. Beans are vegetables. Sugar is derived from either sugar cane or sugar beets. Both are plants in the vegetable category.

Chocolate candy bars contain milk, which is dairy. Therefore, chocolate candy bars are a health food.

Chocolate covered raisins, cherries, orange slices and strawberries all count as fruit, and fruits are good for your health.

Eat a chocolate bar before each meal. It will take the edge off your appetite, and you will eat less at meals.

Chocolate has many preservatives. Preservatives make you look younger.

A box of chocolates can provide your total daily intake of calories in one place. Am just trying to help.

Food for Thought

Oranges and bananas are berries, but strawberries are not technically berries, they are aggregate fruits.

Seven Uses for Lemons

Summertime always means refreshing lemonade to quench your thirst. Here are some other uses for those yellow goodies.

Realtors say a nice bowl of lemons makes a colorful and inexpensive arrangement for the table or counter top.

Finger nails looking dull and yellowed after a long period covered in dark polish? Just squeeze a lemon into a small dish, clean your nails and soak them in the lemon juice for a minute or two. Some women claim that this treatment will also make nails stronger, particularly when adding a tablespoon or so of olive oil to the dish.

Keep cut fruit and vegetables like apples, pears, avocados and potatoes from turning brown by squeezing on a little bit of lemon juice.

You can perk up droopy lettuce by soaking it for an hour in a bowl of cold water and the juice of one lemon.

Simmer lemon peel in water on the stove-top as a natural air freshener

A few drops of lemon juice added to simmering rice will keep it from sticking to the pot and make clean-up a lot easier.