I've lived in Florida for most of my almost 77 years, and we've shipped a lot of citrus to friends and family all over the other 49 states. Wrapping each piece of fruit in newspaper was the safest way to insure the fruit was as good when it arrived at the other end as it was when it left us.
I use the same method now when storing my purchased fruit at the supermarkets. I wrap each piece individually in newspaper, but leave the paper open so everything breathes. I do the same thing with potatoes, both sweet as well as baking, and we wrap large sweet onions to refrigerate. We also keep a bag of cooking onions in a dark cabinet, but still add the newspaper. This just keeps the fruits and vegetables separated so that if one begins to go bad, it does not contaminate the rest.
Shipping apples, pears, plums, nectarines and other fruits would be handled just the same. Small fruits such as cherries can be placed in layers with newspaper between layers. I would store them at home the same way. Hope this helps.
By Julia from Boca Raton, FL
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If you have your own citrus trees and are picking fruit, don't just pull them from the tree either. Take some nippers so that you can cut about an inch of the stem along with the fruit from the tree. Leaving that small amount of stem on each piece of fruit helps to keep them fresh longer. I think it has something to do with not exposing the stem opening or end.
I agree with all the storing tips suggested by Pookarina. Newspaper is the best of all things to wrap each piece of fruit in prior to storing.
We've never had citrus trees, but I can vouch for the newspaper when shipping any other fruit as well as wrapping each piece for the refrigerator drawers. We even keep onions and potatoes this way in the bottom drawer and they seem to last almost forever.
Thumbs Up! Lee
Another good hint, Julia! I will be sure to use this the next time I find good grapefruit. Hmm, maybe I should grab a few today.
All excellent tips to remember. Having lived in FL.for almost 30 years I sure miss my fresh picked fruit.The only thing I've pick here is apples. One tree that's not mentioned much is the"Ponderosa Lemon".Well worth trying one. ; )
Now I'm going to have to find some newspaper. We don't subscribe because neither of us sees well enough for that teeny little print. Great tip, though, as always.
Great idea, I must try this as I so hate waste, way back in Sicily in 1996, I was also told to cut fruit with a little of the stem, it really helps.
I would love to have citrus trees as we love all the citrus fruits. I've never been sure just how they should be stored although I do keep them in the refrigerator's bottom drawer. From now on, they'll have newspaper on them. I'm so happy to learn about this. I've lost many lemons because I didn't use them up soon enough, and they'd get a bad spot and some
Thank you for sharing your wisdom Pookarina.
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