Strawberries can spoil quickly if not handled properly. Here are my steps to clean, dry, and store strawberries so they stay fresh and delicious for weeks!
Strawberries are Not Berries
You’re whole life has been a lie. Strawberries have โberryโ in the name, but they are actually an aggregate fruit. AKA imposters. Meanwhile, classic โberriesโ like blueberries, cranberries, and tomatoes (yes, tomatoes!) are the real deal.
For simple fruits (like a peach or a cherry), their flowers have a single pistil (the plant’s female bits) with a single ovary. After pollination, that one ovary swells into a single fruit containing all the seeds. Apples, pears, and cukes, are examples.
Aggregate fruit is what you get when a single flower has multiple pistils each with its own ovary (strawberry flowers can have hundreds), that mature into small fruitlets and eventually, together, form one โfruitโ structure. Think Voltron but make it strawberry. The flower swells — why does this all sound dirty? — and forms the part of the strawberry we bite into. What look like seeds all over the strawberry are actually matured ovaries. Within each mature ovary sits a single seed.
A true botanical berry comes from a single ovary that contains a seed inside it. Because strawberries form from many separate ovaries rather than one, they arenโt technically berries.
Best Way to Clean & Store Strawberries
Strawberries often have tiny bits of dirt, bacteria, and mold on their surface. Start by inspecting and removing any berries that show signs of this. Mold spreads rapidly.
How to Clean Strawberries
Strawberries are also covered in microscopic mold spores and bacteria that you cannot see, both causing them to spoil faster. After you remove bad fruit from the bunch, you need to remove these pesky things next.
Add the berries to vinegar bath using 1 part vinegar (any vinegar will do) and 3 parts water. Add 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda for every cup of liquid. Soak the berries for 15 minutes. Strain them but do not rinse them.
No, they will not taste like vinegar. Pinky swear.
How to Dry Strawberries
So, the grocery store sprays produce with water all day long. But supermarkets do this to produce that’s out in the open. Your fridge likely has doors, I hope. ๐คฃ So you have to thoroughly dry your strawberries before storing them.
This really goes for any produce you are storing in the refrigerator.
A salad spinner is the easiest way to do this. Line the spinner with a towel (this prevents bruising), add the imposter berries, and gently spin them until dry.
How to Store Strawberries
Once dry, store the strawberries in a towel-lined container with a lid, leave it ajar, and place them in the fridge.
