That one mushy moldy strawberry that snuck in: “Now to corrupt the entire batch! Muhahaha!””
I bet they’re doing this on purpose. Way too often have I had one single potato in an otherwise impeccable batch that sneakily ruins the whole sack. I now investigate them very thoroughly at the store.
I planted a 8ftx4ft strawberry patch a couple years ago and I can safely say I give 90% of them to the chickens. I eat maybe 5 or 6 a day when I grab them, but there are so damn many that I just grab about 5 handfuls of not perfect looking ones and throw them to the hens and they love them. I don't get it. They never raid the patch, but the strawberries won't last a minute on the ground when I give the to them. I always just figured they'd eat the patch
Look at you with all those chicken
It's not the strawberries they love. It's the fact that they've trained their bumbling ape to hand deliver the little red triangles directly to them.
Very true lol
It made me giggle so hard watching the small flock of chickens in my parents' yard jumping to get the blueberries off the bushes.
this is untrue. strawberries get moldy at the store all the time, I both stocked them and culled them and picked them for customers and I can confirm that almost once a day I found moldy berries if not more than once a day
One part white vinegar to four parts water. Maybe a little apple cider vinegar for flavor. But soak your fresh berries for like five minutes, then rinse in clean water, dry, then put back in the fridge. Not in the same container or the contamination goes right back on.
This! This is one of those old timey things you hear about and think is bs, but actually works. I don't even remove the berries from the packet because I am lazy.
I fill a tupperware with apple cider vinegar and water, measured with my heart, and dunk the berries in it, container and all and let sit while I unpack groceries. Then I give them a shake to remove as much vinegar water as I can and toss them in the fridge. I don't rinse them, no they don't taste like vinegar.
A couple years back strawberries were $1 a punnet here and I tested this - the ones dunked in vinegar lasted a week or more with no soft spots, the ones without lasted just a few days before developing soft spots.
So yeah. Dunk them shits in vinegar. It works!
I do this with everything including leafy veg via flooded salad spinner. If I have some made up I also use peracetic acid that I have for sanitizing my stainless stuff.
Normally I would respond to the already posted top reply with this same message, but this is a topic which deserves multiple replies with the same answer to reinforce the idea that it is correct...
Remove any diseased or damaged strawberries from the container.
Soak the rest in a vinegar solution for a few minutes.
Rinse with fresh water.
Allow to completely dry.
Keep refrigerated.
Those are the steps. Works with lots of produce, but seems to be especially good for things like blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries.
But also, at least in the USA, shit's going down with our produce right now and it seems like the shelf life of almost everything as of late is super limited. Not sure if it's due to the tariffs or what.
Probably the FDA being gutted.
It's OK because I already ate the strawberries 0.005 seconds after bringing them home.
grocery store worker here. They do that at the store too :/
Strawberries grown at home are delicious. Shop bought ones taste of.disappointment.
Do people actually think that produce in stores sits there for a week? Most of it is gonna be restocked daily for bigger stores... like twice a week at worst.
Also, just taking your produce out of it's packaging immediately before storing in the fridge will help immensely with the moisture build up causing mold.
Can confirm. I manage a produce department for a living and it blows my mind that we get 3-4 days in the wall cooler but 24 hours at home. Moisture control goes a long way.
Same goes for bananas 😅
Moisture and warmth are the answer. Mold loves moisture and warmth and you gifted it one or the other, at some point.
Also fridge at home gets less gas exchange than open air fridge at supermarket so the ethylene builds up and your fruits turbo-ripen to mush.
So true!
