TIPS AND TRICKS

Produce Tips & Tricks From 
Holland Bottom Farm, LLC

Strawberries


Storing your fresh strawberries
  1. One trick to keeping your strawberries fresh for a longer amount of time is to keep berries cold and dry so they won't mold. On a paper towel lined tray, arrange your berries without washing or removing the stems & cover them with plastic wrap. Then, place them in your refrigerator. Before eating the berries or before using them, wash them under cool/cold water and then you remove the stems.

Pumpkins


Ways To Keep Your Jack-O-Lantern Fresher Longer

Nothing is worse than a sagging, rotting Jack-O-Lantern on your front porch! Make sure that your work of art lasts long enough for those Trick-or-Treaters come Halloween! 
  1. First off, try not to care your pumpkin too early. We know you or your little ones can get excited about this fall activity, but remember that your pumpkin is a fruit (yes, a fruit). Once it is carved, it's exposed to air. This will of course speed up the decaying process. So, hold off as long as you can!
  2. Next, make sure that your pumpkin is fully cleaned out! This means all of those gooey "guts" and seeds. Scrape the interior walls to remove all those stringy things, too! The cleaner that pumpkin, the longer your Jack-O-Lantern's life!
Here are a few other tips & tricks to make your "Jack" last longer after it has been cleaned and carved:
  1. Put 1 tablespoon of bleach for every quart of water into a spray bottle. Then, spray the inside of your Jack-O-Lantern and the the cut edges. This is said to kill any surface bacteria that could make the decaying process speed up. If you do not like the thought of using bleach, you can substitute it for a peppermint Castile soap.
  2. Putting petroleum jelly on the inside and the cut edges of your Jack has been known to slow down the dehydration process over time. Spraying a "humidity fighting" hairspray is also said to work well for this.
  3. Cut the hole on the bottom of the pumpkin and remove the piece, instead of cutting the stem out of the top of the pumpkin to be carved. Then place the clean, carved pumpkin on top of your candle or light source. This not only will make it easier to light the candle or turn on the light, but it will allow moisture to escape rather than pool at the bottom of the pumpkin, which accelerates the rotting process.

Zucchini


Tips for cooking & baking with zucchini
  1. Most people say that the smaller zucchini are best for cooking and grilling.
  2. If you have a giant zucchini that got too big in the garden, don’t throw it out, use it for baking! When you put zucchini in baked goods, makes cakes, breads, cookies, brownies, etc. so moist and delicious. Trust us!
  3. To use zucchini in baked goods, shred the zucchini. You can use a "cheese" grater or even a food processor. You don't actually have to peel the zucchini first, it is fine to leave on the green skin.
  4. For baked goods you will need to squeeze a little of the moisture out of the zucchini in a paper towel before adding it to the recipe. We know you want your baked goods to be moist, but freshly picked zucchini can hold a lot of water! If you don’t squeeze out at least some of the moisture your baked goods might be too moist.
Share by: