Between local blueberries at the farmers' market and organic strawberries on sale at the grocery store, we were noticing that we were starting quite a collection of those plastic berry containers. We held on to them, hoping a good use would crop up.
And then we started bringing home small harvests of various veggies from the family garden as well as the farmers' market, and quickly ran out of storage ideas for them. That's when we put two and two together...
Nowadays, all of our peppers, okra, green beans, and other small veggies to come (we're thinking cherry tomatoes and black eyed peas) get a home inside one of these reused containers. We've also found that if you line one with a coffee filter, they make a great home for sprouts.
It's easy to keep a stash of the containers, and once they're done serving a second, third, and fourth purpose (or more), can easily be tossed into recycling.
They also make it easier to store the veggies in the refrigerator and keep things organized. Before we came up with this solution, we were storing vegetables in homemade cotton muslin sacks--not transparent at all. Now, it's much easier to assess what we have stashed away and therefore determine what's for dinner!
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Good idea. I've used some for kiddos craft supplies, but needed some other ideas. thx
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At my farmers' market, the berry containers come with a clear plastic cup in them, I guess to keep any squished berries from smearing all over the rest of your bag. I clean out the cups and use them for beer traps in the garden.
view How Green Is My Valley's profile
The berry vendors at my local farmers' market will accept these baskets for reuse.
view Snickidy's profile