Ideal Bite

The green Evert-fresh bags from reusablebags.com are also available now at Bed Bath & Beyond. I am still surprised by how well these work. I bring them to the store with me so I don't use those flimsy produce bags they provide. And the produce really does stay fresh a LOT longer! I have also now seen yellow bags for cheese and red bags for lunch meats. Not sure how those work, but the green ones -- I don't know why everyone isn't using them!

We are food preservation fools and... 'tis the season. Every flat surface in the house is covered with bowls, boxes, and baskets of garden produce. If they didn't weigh so much I would stick a zucchini in every soap order we ship out! At any rate, we couldn't fit all this in the fridge if we tried. We can, dry, freeze and, especially, eat all we can. Very, very cool tool is an attachment for our food saver vacuum packer gizmo to vacuum pack glass canning jars. It seals the jar with a regular canning jar lid (no ring needed). They have 2, one for regular mouth and one for wide mouth jars. While maybe not so much for fresh meat and vegies, it is fabulous for safe storage of nuts, dried fruit or vegies, coffee, beans, flour, grains, whatever.

I have food saver containers (kind of like tupperware for your foodsaver vacuum sealer). These things will keep anything forever! I can pick up lettuce from the farmer's market and have it still useable three weeks later in my fridge. As a single girl, I never even bought lettuce a year ago because the amount I bought would always wilt and rot before I could make that many salads! My body is loving the daily salad now!!!

You can also use biobags to hold produce in your refrigerator. These are biodegradable bio-plastic bags meant for lining your kitchen compost pail (3 gal size). They happen to be more breathable than regular plastic, so the prodce lasts longer than regular plastic bags. (Though not as long, I assume, as a vacuum sealer, but nearly as good as the Evert bags, which I have also tried). If you are lazy, like me, and don't want to wash or throw away regular plastic bags, Biobags can be composted, at least here in the Seattle area where they are approved for municipal composting. They are available for order online if not available in your local health/grocery/hardware stores. Biobags also come in doggie waste, yard waste and kitchen garbage can sizes.

How does produce NOT biodegrade??

Tomatoes are technically a fruit because they have seeds.Produce does not biodegrade in the landfills because it is inside garbage bags & not exposed the elements like in a compost pile.That's where my veggie & fruit peelings go.

squash have seeds, cucumbers have seeds, are they also classified as fruits? my husband and i were having a discussion about this a while ago. what makes a fruit a fruit and a veggie a veggie? are veggies only things like carrots and rudabegas?

I found an article about the differences in fruits & veggies: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-difference-between-fruits-and-veget... Hope this helps.

As chinese, we often fry them with eggs, very traditional chinease dish that you must love :) Yes, don't put them in the fridges and eat the fresh ones, and why not grow them in your own garden.