How do you look after vegetables?

I love most vegetables except broad beans.

Green vegies like brussel sprouts and silver beet contain a fair amount of chlorophyll (which btw is chemically very similar to our blood and good for us).

The trouble with over cooking and boiling (large bubbles in boiling water are superheated) is the cells with chlorophyll break down, resulting in the bad taste and colour changing to more olive green. Steaming is better, but not for too long.

With spinach or silver beet, wash well, shake off excess water and put in a pan (with the lid on) over moderate heat, shaking frequently so it does not stick to sides and burn. It will steam with only the water left on the leaves. Only cook until it wilts. Squeeze out excess water then into a pan with a little butter and nutmeg, or better still with hazel nuts (or perhaps macadamia nuts). ;)

Sorry not much help with keeping vegies.

There is a small book called Sailing the Farm. It has good ideas for cruising sailors, some of which would be useful for us. One I remember is about growing sprouts (not the brussels variety). And I seem to remember the tip for bananas was to dip the bunch in sea water, then they are supposed to keep much longer (don't know if keeping on the bunch helps or not).

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Originally Posted by Numpty's Missus

We have never had much luck with the veg on trips. Unless you can fridge them ( and our fridge freezes them which is about as useless as not putting them in the fridge).

Chenz did well on our last trip, coz he had a styrofoam box with his veg in and a few freezer blocks which he kept frozen in his fridge which was basically running as a freezer

We found even in hot weather potatoes, pumpkin, sweet potato and onions last really well ( like 4 - 6 weeks) just packed loose in a cardboard box.

Substitute dehydrated peas and peas/carrots mix for some greenery on a long trip.

If you have the ability....a couple we met recently in an ultimate camper had a couple of those plastic windowboxes with lettuces growing in them. Got them out in the sun each day and they travelled in the camper when on the move. Nice idea but not much good for the way we travel.

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Depending on how long you go for and how much room you have, if you use two polystyrene boxes and split your veggies into the two boxes, you can put freezer bloks into one and then seal it with duct tape etc and then do as Numpty's Missus said we did with the other one, the sealed one will keep them OK for over a week.

Just need to make sure that things like lettuce and leafy veggies are not directly on the freezer blocks.

I normally live on salads when I travel so I dont have to cook as much and find that the resealable bags in the fridge keep most things fresh.With lettuce I portion the leaves in bags rather then trying to stow the entire thing.Tomatoes, use cherrys, they keep for ever.Lebanese cucumbers, the same.The most important thing is to stop them jumping around and getting beaten to a pulp. I place them in resealable bags and then into tupperware containers and have no probs.

Dry veg like potatoe and punpkin will last ages in a cardboard box.

Green leafs, including herbs, should be in sealed containers, with absorbent cooking paper in with them to stop moisture causing rot. I find plastice results in too much bruising. Refrigeration will wilt uncovered green leaves as it is dry air.

Stuff like tomatoes and cucumbers do better out of the fridge if stored well. Refrigerated tomatoes tend to bleed real bad when cut, same with cucumber.

If you have the room I reckon a few styrofoam boxes. If you have an engel/wayco keep rotating ice packs into the boxes. This creates more cold space that cramming it all into the fridge and is a better temp than what you need for a ice cold beer.

We start with salads (lettuce in a container, tomato, cucumber, avo's, etc) for two days, then salsas, then go to veges like cellery, carrot, cabbage, corn. Once these get too long in the tooth, it's pumkin, potato, onion, whatever else has lasted.
You have to be careful packing some fruit with vege's, as they give off gas that will prematurely ripen others, eg: bananas and avo's, keep them separate in styrofoam trays, if possible with freezer packs.
As to how long everything lasts depends on the outside air temps at the time, so these ideas are ours in FNQ, you guys further south should be able to make this stuff last longer.
If you're going to get down to cans for a week or more, I always take a vitamin suppliment along, especially for the kids.
I agree with Bush65 and cartm58, brussell sprouts a very nutricious, last a fair while, and taste bloody great if cooked properly, though, I admit, are not the nicest tucker in the worldfor kids;) .

I look after vegetables the same way as i look after the car...

lower the wheelchairs tyre pressures to give a better footprint and pay more attention to the wheel bearing temperatures....

sprouts ain't called satan's balls for nothing you know:twisted:

I love broccoli, brussell sprouts and cabbage, but cauliflower...... you can shove it.:D

If ya can't buy it in a tin, it aint worth buying. Potatoes are the one exception as they come in packets instead of tins.

Other than the above smart asre statement, no useful advice to offer other than wack em in the engel but remember to leave room for the important items: Beer, Scotch and Steak.

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Originally Posted by neil-d1

sprouts ain't called satan's balls for nothing you know:twisted:

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I knew there was a reason I liked them so much.

Blanched and then with a bit of bacon fried up are so damn good. mmmm...... I'm hungry now.