12 Items of Produce you can Revive with Water and How to do it

I don’t know about you, but in my fridge produce sometimes starts to go bad before I can get to eating it. Simple actions can help extend the life of your produce, which saves you money and reduces greenhouse gas producing food waste. One of those simple actions is using water to revive wilted produce. It is amazing what water can do with bringing certain produce items back to life, so I’m sharing 12 items of produce you can revive with water.

This post is a part of our Climate Change Collective conversations. Michelle at Boomer Eco Crusader is starting off our conversation this month with her post “Food Storage Tips that will Reduce Waste and Save you Money.” Learn more about the Climate Change Collective below.

Food Waste Conversations

Food waste is a topic I’m passionate about and it’s an issue that plays a vital role in our fight against climate change. Simple actions like reviving your produce in water or storing your produce properly can reduce the amount of food that goes to waste in your home.

Read more about the topic of food waste here:

Why Food Waste is a Big Deal and How to Prevent it

6 Fantastic Organizations Working To Reduce Food Waste and Scarcity

Bring Produce Back to Life with Water

It is amazing what water can do for produce. Even if it seems like a pice of produce is too far gone, it might be worth trying these tricks to make them edible again.

3 tried and tested produce items you can revive with water

1. Celery

Store your celery in water from the start to have it last longer.

Tip: trim the edges and the bottom off the celery as well as any marred bits. This will help prevent rotting in the water.

If you haven’t stored your celery in water and the stalks wilt, just trim as noted above and store in water overnight. They should be firm again in the morning.

2. Carrots

If your carrots are going soft and limp, these can regain their firmness by being placed in water.

Tip: peel your carrots before placing them in water.

I cut up carrot sticks for the week’s lunches, then store them in water to have them keep for the week. For meal prep in advance, I will peel and shop my carrots and store them in water until I need to cook supper. This means I can prep my carrots even days in advance.

3. Radishes

Soft radishes can be firmed up by placing them in water.

Tip: cut off the ends of your radishes before placing them in water.

I store my radishes in jars of water, which makes them last longer.

Further produce items to try reviving with water

I haven’t tried everything on the list below, but these are some other produce items that might be revived with water.

Produce Item	Best Revival Method	Time Needed
Lettuce	Soak whole leaves or head in cold/ice water	15–30 minutes
Spinach	Submerge in ice water	10–15 minutes
Kale	Soak in cold water	15–30 minutes
Fresh herbs (parsley, cilantro, basil, mint)	Trim stems, place in a glass of water like flowers	30 minutes to a few hours
Asparagus	Trim ends, stand in a jar of water (refrigerated)	1–2 hours
Broccoli	Soak stem end in cold water	30–60 minutes
Green onions (scallions)	Stand upright in a jar of water; can also regrow	1–2 hours (longer for regrowth)
Beets	Soak whole roots in cold water	30–60 minutes
Turnips	Submerge in cold water	30–60 minutes

More ways to reduce your food waste

We’ve shared a number of ways you can get more out of your food and reduce your food waste.

Check out these blog posts for inspiration:

20 Unexpected Foods You Can Freeze

3 Ways to Preserve Summer Produce

Easy Vegetable Broth- made with food scraps

10 Ways to Get the Most Out of Food Scraps

Reducing waste: Creative ways to use egg shells and cartons

And, of course, check out Michelle’s post on Boomer Eco Crusader for some great food storage tips: Food Storage Tips that will Reduce Waste and Save you Money

The Climate Change Collective

This post is a part of our Climate Change Collective conversations.

The Climate Change Collective was born out of an exchange that took place between Michelle and Jamie in the comments section of a Jamie Ad Stories blog post. Jamie and Michelle both care deeply about the impact of human activity on our planet and wanted to find a way to keep the climate change message top of mind for everyone. A tweet was sent out, bloggers responded, and we’ve all now teamed up to create the Climate Change Collective! Learn more about the bloggers behind this group in our post introducing everyone: Get to Know our 5 Fantastic Climate Change Collective Bloggers.

The idea is simple. The members of the collective will take turns writing a monthly blog post sharing their concerns and unique perspective about climate change. After the post is published, the rest of the group will keep the conversation going by sharing a link to the post on their blogs along with their thoughts and ideas. If you’re a like-minded blogger and would like to join our collective, please get in touch. The more the merrier!

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