A horticulturist’s guide to storing your fruits and vegetables

Sep 13, 2024, 5:00 PM

Once you've grown your fruits and vegetables, the next step is storing them. (Canva)

(Canva)

BY MICHELLE LEE

Producer

SALT LAKE CITY — You’ve grown your fruits and vegetables. Now what? The next step is storing them.

A lot of your harvest can be stored for days, weeks, and sometimes even months, as long as you use the best methods.

Storing tomatoes

For tomatoes, KSL Greenhouse Host Taun Beddes likes to use the freeze-drying method.

First, he will cut them up. Then, he will place them separately on an oiled cookie sheet and freeze them. Once they’re frozen, they will go into Ziploc bags.

Even if you don’t freeze dry, you can still store tomatoes this way and pull them out to use for soups and other dishes.

Storing other vegetables

Before freeze-drying other vegetables, start by blanching them.

“Blanch them in boiling water for just a minute or so and then put them into cold water so it stops the cooking process,” Beddes said. “You’ll do this with many different vegetables and then you can freeze them.”

Canning is a bit different, though. Beddes said there’s a different canning process for every vegetable.

To learn more about canning, listen to this interview on the Let’s Get Moving with Maria podcast:

Storing apples

Apples don’t store as long as vegetables do, but they are the longest-lasting fruit. They can stay in your refrigerator for anywhere between three to six weeks, depending on the variety.

The key here is to keep your refrigerator temperature as close as possible to 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

KSL Greenhouse is on every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and on our website.