So many tips and tricks out there for how to keep strawberries fresh for the longest, and everyone claims their method is "the best!" Since we have strawberries year-round in this California kitchen, we've tried and tested all the methods, and you won't believe the BEST method for storing fresh strawberries to keep them bright, shiny, and beautiful for the longest! Shall we?
When it comes to storing strawberries, there are two things to consider: 1) how to keep strawberries fresh the longest and 2) how to wash/prep strawberries AND store them the longest.
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Why Do My Strawberries Go Bad So Fast?
The reason strawberries, or any precious berries for that matter, go bad so quickly is moisture. Wetness may be the essence of beauty but it is the evil soul of mold and bacteria growth, which is what "bad" berries are.
To keep strawberries from going bad fast, the most important factor is keeping them as dry as possible, even more important than cleaning them. That's for storing though; eating strawberries is a different story.
How to Keep Strawberries Fresh the Longest
tl;dr. The best way to keep strawberries fresh for the longest period of time, i.e. 1 week+, is UNWASHED, with moldy, soft, bruised berries discarded, and in an AIRTIGHT container like a glasslock in the refrigerator, washing only the berries you will eat as you go.
We've tried all of the well-known methods and far and away, strawberries have stayed the freshest if you store them as above. All of the strawberries are stored in the refrigerator:
- WINNER: unwashed, picked over, in an air-tight container
- unwashed, as is in the plastic clamshell container you bought them
- any method of washing—plain water, hot water, with vinegar, with lemon, with baking soda—then dried and stored in ANY container, did not last as long as unwashed.
But let's be real. You're trying to keep fresh strawberries as a healthy snack that's at least as easy and grab-n-go if not more so than a bag of gummy bears, so let's talk about how to PREP strawberries so they stay fresh and plump for as long as possible.
How to Prep/Wash Strawberries to Stay Fresh
If you absolutely MUST prep the strawberries so they're ready to eat right out of the refrigerator, i.e. washed and hulled, then here are the methods we've tried and the winner.
For every washing method, we dry strawberries by placing them between layers of clean kitchen towels or paper towels and rub bone-dry. Like, truly each individual berry dried off like you're hand-drying wine glasses.
- rinsed with cool tap water, dried
- soaked in 1:2 vinegar: water solution, rinsed, dried
- soaked in 2 tablespoons baking soda 2 cups water, rinsed dried
- WINNER: soaked in 120°F water for 10 minutes, dried
Simply rinsing with cool water will remove any dirt, dust, and critters. But other than that, you aren't doing anything to extend the strawberries' storage life. In fact, you are opening up more risk to moisture unless you are meticulous about drying the strawberries.
If you want to actually CLEAN your strawberries, vinegar and/or hot water are the better bet. The science/logic behind vinegar and hot water is that both solutions will kill any existing mold/spores or bacteria on the berries. The truth is, both are prooobably going to render the same results all other parameters equal, but running hot water is easier—at least for me—than hauling out the giant jug of plain white vinegar from the back storage pantry.
You don't have to go to the trouble of heating water on the stove, which I did during testing just to make sure the water was at exact temperatures. The very hottest your water comes out of the tap is good enough. Our hot tap water has gotten up to 140°F before!
How to Wash/Prep AND Keep Strawberries Fresh
Storing your strawberries UNWASHED and only washing strawberries right before eating is BEST, but if you really feel you must wash and store, here is the best method:
Do not "hull" the strawberries by slicing the tops off. If you absolutely want to make the strawberries poppable right out of the fridge, pull ONLY the leafy tops off, leaving just the little bit of green stem. If you cut or tear the strawberry to remove it, there will be too much moisture.
Run the hottest tap water in your sink, which will be ~ 120°F. Soak strawberries in hot water solution for 10 minutes. Drain berries and rinse.
Lift strawberries out of bowl and dry by rubbing between clean kitchen towels or paper towels. Make sure the strawberries are BONE DRY.
Line an air tight container with clean paper towels. Place strawberries in container and close lid. The paper towels will absorb any errant moisture.
What to Do with a Lot of Strawberries
So your eyes got too big for your refrigerator at the farmers' market and now you have way too many strawberries. My recommendation of course, is to just wash and pop them as is, but if you want to know how to use up those extra strawberries, here are the best recipes, both sweet AND savory:
- Strawberry Chia Jam
- Strawberry Mochi Cake
- Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream
- Strawberry Sorbet
- Double Dark Chocolate Pavlova with Ice Cream and Berries
- Strawberry Salad with Feta and Balsamic
How to Wash, Prep, and Store Strawberries
Ingredients
- 1 container fresh strawberries (any size)
- hot water from tap
Instructions
To Simply Store Strawberries for Longest (1 week +)
- Sort through strawberries and discard any moldy or very soft ones. Keep strawberries whole with their green leafy tops in an air-tight container in the refrigerator, rinsing only berries you plan to eat just before.
To Advance Prep Strawberries for Storage (1 week)
- Do not "hull" the strawberries by slicing the tops off. If you absolutely want to make the strawberries poppable right out of the fridge, pull ONLY the leafy tops off, leaving just the little bit of green stem. If you cut or tear the strawberry to remove it, there will be too much moisture.
- Run the hottest tap water in your sink, which will be ~ 120°F. Soak strawberries in hot water solution for 10 minutes. Drain berries and rinse.
- Lift strawberries out of bowl and dry by rubbing between clean kitchen towels or paper towels. Make sure the strawberries are BONE DRY.
- Line an air tight container with clean paper towels. Place strawberries in container and close lid. The paper towels will absorb any errant moisture.
- When you're ready to eat, pull or slice of small green stem piece, though you don't have to, all of the green leafy top of starwberries in totally edible!
Food for Afterthoughts
You know how there's that cliché "once you have {this} you can never go back to {that}?" (And you can fill that right in with whatever dirty little thoughts you'd like.)
Of course we always get the point that the person is trying to make, but it's just a saying, and it's also a little bit of an exaggeration because, like, really?
Once you...
eat ramen from one of those ramen shops on Sawtelle will you really never go back to the sodium-bloated satisfaction of a package of neoguri?
make macaroni and cheese from scratch, will you really never go back to the breezy ease of the blue box?
eat a strawberry from Harry's Berries, will you really never go back to store-bought strawberries? Really?
Harry's Berries
I didn't want to go back to store-bought berries. Didn't want to put the perfectly protective plastic clamshell in my cart. Didn't want to see the sad, paradoxical reality of overgrown specimens so solid and yet so anemic that their white-almost-green inner flesh had prematurely bulked up, too quickly outgrowing their still pale, thin skins on either end, wrapping their gross, grotesque masses around tiny, hard, embryonic yellow seeds.
But I did.
I went back to store-bought strawberries.
Because I couldn't get out to the Farmers' Market before brunch. I didn't have enough time to drive across town. I didn't have enough patience to deal with the drive and the parking. And I most certainly did not have a million dollars in small bills to spend on 3 tiny baskets of fleeting fruit.
This morning, I woke up at the crack of dawn this morning. I drove across town to the Farmers' Market. I paid $millionty.99 in cash for a basket of the reddestripest, softestsweetest cutest little candybombs this side of summer.
Once you eat a strawberry from Harry's Berries, you might go back to store-bought strawberries once. ONCE, but never again after that.
(And perhaps a greater discovery than the berries themselves is their availability at a West Hollywood Farmers' Market. On Monday.)
Hahnak says
miss 3rd street. those berries look so small and so sweet. so unlike anything i find at my supermarket...
Katherine Martinelli says
There is nothing like farm fresh, local strawberries. They are so much sweeter and juicier than the supermarket variety!
Dennis Wade says
The seascape are the best, I eat the greens cause I every part is delish. My sunday breakfast is a basket of 'em and a dozen luna bay oysters.
Brooks says
Can't deal with the store bought variety anymore...primarly because of your apt description of them. NorCal has plenty of growers akin to Harry's Berries.
Lauren Hayley says
Had to try them myself...they were amazing!! I got them from the Wednesday SM farmer's market.
Living, Learning Eating says
Those look amazing!
But I'm a college kid. *CRASH* - that was my reality check.
What's good to eat in Los Angeles on a student's budget? I'm vegetarian, love whole grains and foods, have a wicked sweet tooth, and will be in the USC area from August through December!
So excited - sun, beaches, USC, foooood :)
jenjenk says
i can't go back. it's the only strawberries i'll use in my strawberry shortcake. i've tried other strawberries and it just tastes BLAH...
Greg Park says
Never had them, but I wasn't surprised to see they sell the "Seascape" varietal. I finally planted 25 crowns this year...I hope they taste as good as the ones from the farmers markets.