Do your carrots get soft and bendy in the fridge? Mine always have, and it drove me bonkers until I realized (yesterday, actually) that they were drying out. To store them so they’ll last longer, remove their green tops, rinse and drain them before storing in a plastic bag in the coldest and most humid part of the fridge. Firm up limp carrots by cutting off one end and sticking them in ice water, cut side down.
Tips
I use paper towel to cover them and put them in plastic bag, they last longer!
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@efterskoleliv: ….what??
Love this tip.
I find most produce can be “revived” in cold water (sometimes I find it necessary to add ice. particularly in summer when my tap water comes out more like bath water). Even the limpest of poor, forgotten lettuce, can usually be revived after a couple of hours in ice water.
Also, in shopping at the farmers’ market, I’ve discovered that removing the tops of all root veg, as soon as I get home, is the best thing to do. This goes for carrots, beets, radishes, turnips, kohlrabi, etc. It seems when you leave the tops on, the produce tries to keep the greens fresh, drawing moisture out of the root vegetable at the bottom.
I always remove the tops after buying carrots. I prefer to buy carrots with the tops still on, but that’s just so I can tell how fresh the carrots are (by the condition of the tops). Once I buy the carrots the tops serve no useful purpose and just dry out the carrots.
Actually you can rinse and saute the carrot greens like you would with kale or other tough leafy greens. You can also blanch it . I like to blanch then make a pesto with it in the food processor.
I like the idea of storing carrots in water but am concerned that vitamin C and other goodies may leak into the water.
We grow carrots and lots of ’em, because they last all winter and well into spring. Last year we brought in 60 pounds of them in the fall harvest. So we have experimented a lot with ways to keep them over the long haul. What we found best is the wash and scrub them well, then lay them out over kitchen towels to dry completely, turning them once during the day. Then add them to large plastic bags and leave the bags in the fridge very loosely closed. This allows excess condensation to evaporate out.
Check on the bags every few weeks, removing carrots that aren’t doing so well and making a point of cooking them first. In the case of weird-shaped carrots or sad looking ones, dedicate those to puree to freeze for carrot and coconut milk soups.
We brought in our main carrot crop in November, and ate our last fresh carrots in May last year. We have an old fridge in the basement that came with the house 26 years ago and is still running. We keep saying that we will soon need to recycle it, but so far, it is great for housing overflow from the garden, a large batch of homemade yogurt, and a few bottles of chilled wine. We’re gonna miss it when it finally dies.