For a while now I've been trying to work out the best way to store strawberries. Most of the time I only buy one or two punnets of strawberries and we eat them straight away. However in peak strawberry season, when the fruit is cheap, I just can't resist buying a few punnets at a time.

While my storage research is still a work in progress, this is what I've found so far.

 

Many websites and books recommend keeping strawberries out of the fridge. They definitely lose flavour and also seem to dry out when stored in the fridge. However, where I live, strawberries just don't last out of the fridge in the middle of summer. After 24 hours on the kitchen bench they're covered in fruit fly and starting to rot.

They also don't keep very well in the original punnet.  It just takes one bad berry and you end up with an unwelcome surprise - half a punnet of furry fruit.

So far the best method I've found is to take the berries out of the punnet and remove any which are squishy or over ripe. I then line a flat-ish plastic container with kitchen paper and place the unwashed berries in a single layer in the container. Cover these with a lid - to reduce the risk of them drying out - and place in the fridge.

I then try to remove the strawberries an hour before eating, so they can come back to room temperature.