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General => General Discussion => Topic started by: Maho on January 08, 2015, 04:24:04 PM

Title: How do you keep your veggies fresh??
Post by: Maho on January 08, 2015, 04:24:04 PM

Hi guys,

We have just returned from the high country area, and with the heat up there, the veggies didn't fair to well.

So I'm wondering, how does everyone keep there fruit and veggies fresh? What do you store them in?

We have previously used a "two zone" on top of the engel, but I feel in the heat it makes the fridge work a bit to hard. This time we have them in a cool bag, but without any cooling/ice pack as we don't run a freezer.

So what's your thoughts and has anyone got any good ideas?

Matt

Title: Re: How do you keep your veggies fresh??
Post by: ronmac on January 08, 2015, 04:41:58 PM

Hi! Maho, Although  I run 2 -40 lt Engels, I keep the spuds, onions carrots and pumpkin in an enclosed  breathable box in the shade. For peas and beans I buy edgels. the only items i keep in the fridge are celery, tomatoes and perishable items. If you have room, an esky half filled with ice. cheers Ron.

Title: Re: How do you keep your veggies fresh??
Post by: LuckyDog on January 08, 2015, 04:57:06 PM

For spuds onions, hession bag in the shade and pumpkins we use small butternuts as there's only Enuff in one for a day or so after cutting, anything else fresh we have a small moulded esky with some frozen drink bottles in with them which we usually get nearly a week out of them if we can keep rotating the drink bottles otherwise its tinned veges after that for us.

Sent from my ZTE T83 using Tapatalk

Title: Re: How do you keep your veggies fresh??
Post by: edz on January 08, 2015, 06:58:03 PM

If you arnt moving from your campsite and you wanted to get fancy you could make up a fold flat version of a Kookgardie meat safe type of evaporative cooler, in low humidity it should keep things cooler than ambient ..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nROyfgGxMDw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nROyfgGxMDw) or dowhat they do in poor African countries https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNLPeb3qIhc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNLPeb3qIhc)

Title: Re: How do you keep your veggies fresh??
Post by: Maho on January 08, 2015, 07:46:35 PM

Thanks for the ideas guys.

That zeer pot looks pretty cool, simple but effective. I've not heard of those before, thanks for the vid!

Title: Re: How do you keep your veggies fresh??
Post by: tracker on January 08, 2015, 10:36:52 PM

G'Day All,
             To keep pumpkin .. After first cut...Take whats left... cut out seeds and soft pulp...then take pepper and cover exposed yellow flesh and store in coolest place you can find { don't be bashful with pepper }
                                                                                         Cheers Tracker.
 

Title: Re: How do you keep your veggies fresh??
Post by: Jen, Sprogs n Him on January 09, 2015, 12:44:52 AM

I just found a collapsible iceless cooler box, made from neoprene. I'm going to try this for fruit and veg next week,  will let you know how it goes..
Dark colours are supposed to be best,  and being non plastic things shouldn't sweat.

(http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/01/08/f4be35b8afc5caf3c61544e381002a36.jpg)(http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/15/01/08/51e180b127eaacf907675aa628167e0f.jpg)

Title: Re: How do you keep your veggies fresh??
Post by: lilstookie on January 15, 2015, 12:23:26 AM

I wrap any underground growers individually in newspaper and store in a hessian bag in the storage box of the camper (coolest place). Fresh fruit and veg that need refrigerating I also wrap individually in newspaper and I stick them in the fridge away from the edges so they don't get 'burnt'. I also try to buy a melon or similar for the end of our stay. They keep nicely unrefrigerated when whole and make a nice change.

Lil :)

Title: Re: How do you keep your veggies fresh??
Post by: Redcherokee on January 15, 2015, 09:53:42 AM

I put fruit and veg in the fridge inside a couple of neoprene pencil cases.  They help avoid fridge burn if the fridge goes a bit too cold, and they keep the veg together making it easier to dig down to the beer on the bottom. 

Title: Re: How do you keep your veggies fresh??
Post by: rossm on January 15, 2015, 12:42:38 PM

Out on the Canning Stock Route a few years ago I was amazed when one of the party produced a very fresh looking lettuce, which it turned out had been bought in Kalgoorlie a week or so earlier.

Her trick was to keep the the lettuce wrapped in many layers of newspaper and store it out of the sun in the car. It was taken  out at night and freshened up in the cool air (and it can get fresh out there) and then wrapped up again in the morning.

I notice somebody mentioned keeping tomatoes in  a fridge. They don't need to be and will taste better if they are not.

Title: Re: How do you keep your veggies fresh??
Post by: fishfinder on January 15, 2015, 12:51:05 PM

I store the vegies in a box with the steak and depending on how long we are gone for would depend on how many box's I take but every morning I will do a stock take and if low I would empty all the contents out of the box into the fridge would have my first meal about 2.00pm and continue until I fall over - as they say there is steak and vegies in every can of beer  :cup: :cheers: