Save the Fruit

We like to eat fruits and veggies in my house - well okay I buy them and make them available - my family just falls in line. Sometimes though the fruit starts to turn before it can be consumed. I read about various methods to extend the life of fruits and veggies on the internet.

After research I decided to try the glass jar method. I suspected this would work because salads in glass jars work great. If you prep salads for a week and place each one in a glass jar when you open the last jar it will be as fresh as when you placed it into the container 4 days prior.

Caveats:

Must be placed into clean glass jars, this will not work using plastic containers or jars.

fruit should be washed and completely dried before being placed into jars. I wash the fruit when it arrives home from the shop. It is then placed on the tray you see in the above picture to dry for at least an hour. If you put wet fruit in the jar it will just get gross and moldy. Also check and make sure the fruit is in good condition. If you place fruit inside the jar that is already beginning to turn it will just turn all the other fruits in the jar to mush. My mother often said junk in, junk out.

I have not tried mixing the fruit. I just think one fruit per jar works best.

The plastic lids were purchased at Walmart. You can use the lids that come with the canning jars, but since I can I need those lids for other things. Of course I have a ton of canning jars so this is not an extra expense for me.

I have been pleasantly surprised at how well this has worked. A bonus has been that we are actually eating even more fruit. it is so nice to just open a jar and have the fruit all cleaned and prepared, ready to eat. I have not tried it with vegetables but I suspect it works as well. I have seen where if the veggie is celery it is placed in water in the jar. My DH hates celery so it does not often make an appearance at our house.