Will Storing Strawberries With Cinnamon Sticks Make Them Last Longer?

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There are few things more satisfying in the dominion of delicious fruits than a perfectly ripe, plump, and sweet strawberry from the supermarket, farmers market — or better yet, picked right at the farm. It might seem obvious, but to choose the best strawberries, you want them bright red. If they have even a little green or white coloration, you can't count on them ripening properly in the fridge. But the problem with perfectly ripe strawberries is they can turn bad fast. Can something as simple as storing your strawberries with cinnamon sticks actually help them last longer in the fridge? The answer is yes, and it works great.

Gray mold, a fungus known as botrytis, is the main cause of rot in strawberries. And, once gray mold finds its way onto your strawberries, it spreads incredibly fast. Unfortunately, you can't simply wipe off gray mold or cut off the moldy portion, you need to throw out the entire strawberry because it's just not safe to eat. But, when you add a cinnamon stick or two to your clam shell container or Tupperware, they'll help stave off mold with the help of cinnamaldehyde. Cinnamaldehyde is what gives cinnamon its distinctive scent and flavor and it has natural antifungal properties that impede the growth of gray mold. While gray mold may still eventually take hold, storing your strawberries with cinnamon can significantly extend their ripeness life span, so you don't have to eat them all right when you buy them.

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It's a bummer when your berries go bad, but if you follow some tips, you can optimize their freshness. And, interestingly, strawberries aren't berries at all because their seeds are on the outside (who knew?). First of all, with the cinnamon stick technique, you can reuse sticks that you had already used in another recipe, just make sure you rinse them and completely dry them before putting them with your strawberries. Using dry, plain cinnamon sticks is great for storage because it won't add any extra flavor, but if you like the taste of cinnamon and strawberry, you can simply dust them with ground cinnamon and it will work equally well to fight the fungus.

Some other great techniques to keep your strawberries fresh are equally quick and easy. Try a good soak in a mixture of one part vinegar to three parts water. The vinegar will clean off any existing mold and can extend their freshness by a few days or up to a week. Just make sure they're completely dry before you store them. Storing them in an airtight container will keep new mold from getting in, and you can place them on paper towels inside the container to keep them from leaching moisture or knocking around inside the container to bruise them. 

If you do, inevitably, find mold on your strawberries, you're generally okay to throw out only the infected ones and keep the rest, just take a close look at each berry before you pop it in your mouth. And this time maybe add a little cinnamon to the container once you put them back in the fridge.