I’m not sure what got into me last week, but I decided to buy fruit at Costco, not instead of at the local grocery store, but in addition to – and I did twice. Maybe it was the heat.
Maybe it was the sudden appearance of summer (we had a long rainy spring). Or, maybe it was the misguided belief that I could actually eat it all. Who knows? The problem is, I wound up with 30+ pounds of fruit in 95 degree weather that would need to be eaten before the rot set in.
Total purchases:
- 1 lb blackberries
- 6 pints raspberries
- 2 lbs strawberries + 1 lb I picked from the garden
- 5 lbs sweet cherries
- 2 lbs nectarines
- a large honeydew melon
- a pineapple
- 15 large apples
- 5 lbs limes
- 4 lbs apricots
- a stack of bananas
The bananas, nectarines, and apricots were eaten without a problem. Some of the blackberries made it into salads. And I was able to use a third of the limes, cherries, and raspberries before I worried they might go off. The honeydew is still in the fridge waiting for the weekend.
To avoid losing it all to fruit flies and mold, I spent some time finding ways to prepare or use other than just by eating it raw. Here are the strategies I came up with:
Made a black/raspberry crumble and froze it.
Threw all of the just-picked strawberries into the blender with water and ice to make an agua fresca for breakfast.
Pitted the cherries and chopped up the pineapple. Both were tossed into Ziploc bags, laid flat, and frozen. I’ll use them to make pineapple upside down cake over the 4th.
Squeezed the juice from the limes I had left into ice cube trays and froze them so I have ready access to fresh lime juice without fear of the limes drying out (p.s. each lime took up one cube).
Made a giant apple crumble in a rectangular Pyrex dish, cut it into individual servings and wrapped it for lunches.
It was some work to do all of this, but, rather that than the alternative. If you have tips for using up or storing fresh fruit before it goes off, please let me know before the next fruit binge hits.