Throughout the summer I have airbnb guests staying in my house, and I always make sure they have space for food in the fridge, which leaves less space for my own food of course. But this year it has served as a great experiment/lesson in storing my homegrown vegetables. In the past I’ve always put things like courgettes, beans, sweetcorn etc in the fridge to store, whether it’s just for a day or for a week, but this year I’ve had to forsake some fridge space, so all those vegetables have ended up in the veg rack in the corner of my kitchen. What a difference!! Honestly, the veg seems to store SO much better like that. The courgettes in particular stay in much better shape. I can see why so many old farmhouses had larders and I feel a bit stupid for not really thinking this through before (I think I’ve been brainwashed by modern life thinking that everything needs to be kept in a fridge) but I can’t actually think of a single veg that DID store better in the fridge this summer. Even the lettuces and rocket seemed happier in a bowl on the worktop.
I should say though, my home is a lovely old cottage, so it always stays really cool inside, even in the heat of the summer this year. I suspect you wouldn’t have had the same results if you’d tried storing things in the kitchen of a hot London flat this year! It’s definitely food for thought though – there must be lots of other people putting things in the fridge who could be storing their veg in the kitchen cupboards/larders etc. I’m a convert – all my veg is going to be dotted around the kitchen from now on!