Gardening Series: Tips for Harveting and Storing Fruits & Vegetables from Your Garden P3
Source: Denver Urban Gardens
Photo Source: Unsplash,
Harvesting
General Principles for Short-Term Storage
These tips will help you know how to store most things from your garden to consume within the next few days. The sooner you can eat fresh veggies and fruits after harvest, the more nutritious and tasty they will be.
Cleaning: Gently brush all dirt, straw, bugs, and other detritus from the produce, but DO NOT WASH the fruit until you’re ready to use it. When ready, run cool water over the skin and gently rub clean. Cut out any rot, pest, or sun damage. Peel if necessary or preferred.
Refrigerate or Not? Stone fruits and tomatoes should not be refrigerated (that is, if you want them to have any taste!). Refrigerating most fruits and vegetables does, however, extend the life of their viability.
Store Fruits & Vegetables Separately: Many fruits emit ethylene gas, which causes other fruits and vegetables to ripen more quickly (aka rot), so store them separately unless you’re trying to ripen something quickly. Further, many fruits will absorb the odors of the vegetables they’re stored with. So store them separately, unless you want onion-scented peaches!
Air Flow: Allow some air to flow around the fruit to slow down rotting.
Remove Rot: Inspect daily and remove anything that shows signs of spoilage to prevent the spread of rot.
Moisture Control: Add a
How to keep strawberries healthy and productive
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Fertilizing
If June-bearing plants do not produce many runners by mid-July this usually means the plants need more nitrogen.
You can apply compost or an organic fertilizer, such as blood meal, around the plants to increase nitrogen for plant growth.
Before plants begin to grow in the spring of the second year, you may need to add more compost or organic nitrogen to encourage plant growth and fruit development.
Weeding
Because strawberries are poor competitors, keep all weeds out of the strawberry bed.
Hand-weeding is recommended for home gardeners.
Careful cultivation with a hoe is effective for managing weeds in strawberry plantings, but be careful not to dig too deeply, as you could damage the plant's shallow root system.Shidonna Raven Garden & Cook How to: Clean Cooking & Eating
Source: Evergreen Botany
How can you introduce more (organic or natural) fresh vegetables and fruits into your diet? How could this impact the environment? How could a home garden contribute to your and your family's over all health?
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