Keeping your berries fresh longer

Are you like me, do you buy berries and then end up throwing away half of them? Berries are expensive and it seems so wasteful to be throwing away so many. Unless I am making a specific recipe that calls for the entire pint, I am often reluctant to buy them because of their short shelf life. 

Well that is all over now. I was reading a blog post by one of my favorites Bonnie Banters where she shares a tip she found on the Internet for storing berries. 

First, don't wash them and then store them in glass jars with a lid on. I often by jams, jellies or relish at farm markets in canning jars and these jars are a good size and work perfectly. Any glass jar however, will work.

I bought strawberries on Wednesday and placed them in two jars and put them in the door of my fridge. I left four berries out in the container. By Friday the berries in the container were starting to go bad. On Saturday morning I took out some strawberries from the jars in the fridge and they were just as fresh as when I put them in on Wednesday. 

As to how long they will stay fresh, I can't tell you but Bonnie says a minimum of a week. That sounds really good to me , this way when you shop you know you can buy berries to use in smoothies or cereal or whatever and they will last until the next time you go shopping. 

It makes me wonder why it took us so long to figure this out but if you think about it, our grandmothers used glass dishes with covers in the fridge and they probably knew that this was the way to keep berries fresh longer but somehow as time past we lost this knowledge. 

I am delighted with this way to save money and enjoy our berries longer.