Sausage, ham, bacon, chorizo- pork can be cooked oh-so-many ways. Diners ate more than their fair share of the sweet meat at the 2nd annual Slow Food Pork Roast on Sunday.

You could say that this has been my year of the pig. I’ve eaten boudin blanc at The Publican, fried pigs ears at The Purple Pig and pork belly at Big Star. Grilled sausage with a fresh tomato salad has become my staple summer meal and I’ve attempted not one, but two of the city’s rib fests. So my heart soared when I heard about the event to top it all off- Slow Food Chicago’s 2^nd Annual Pig Roast.

This past Sunday, Goose Island’s Ukrainian Village brewery opened its doors for some of the city’s best chefs- think The Gage, The Publican and Mado- and a crowd of hundreds. Each chef was given one local swine to do with what they may. Some roasted, some shredded, some stuffed into sausage casing. David Burke served a tostado with shredded pork and sweet mole, Kith & Kin served ham and rye sandwiches with Dijon mayo, and Longman & Eagle served confit porchetta with a white and green tomato salad. The kicker? A black truffle sausage served with foie gras from N9ne Steakhouse.

In between plates of pork, diners sipped on cold Goose Island beers (Sophie, Harvest Ale and 312), sodas, and freshly brewed coffees from Intelligentsia. After eating, groups toured the Goose Island brewery, a twenty-four hour operating facility that brews and bottles the more than 50 varieties of the companies craft brews. But the day was really all about the pork. Three hours of eating sausage, pulled pork and spicy chorizo and it may be time for the year of the cow.

For a refreshing cocktail on the hottest days of summer, try this Bermudian classic, made with homemade ginger ale.

During the humid, hot days of summer, nothing is better than a cocktail. Start with homemade ginger ale, refreshing all on its own. Spiked with orange and lemon zest, this easy to make soda is bound to become a kitchen staple. Whisk together some yeast, sugar, grated ginger and citrus juice and in a few days you’ll be drinking your own homemade spirit. Add a bit of lime juice and some dark rum, and you have the making’s to the perfect summer drink. Cheers!

Ginger Ale
1 1/2 cups organic sugar
3 tablespoons freshly grated ginger root
1 lemon, zested into thin, long slices, and juiced
1 large orange, zested into thin, long slices and juiced
1/2 teaspoon bakers yeast
3 L water (room temperature)
3.5 L Glass bottle or pitcher that is seal-able (so carbonation can occur)

1. Place the sugar and yeast in the bottle and mix to combine thoroughly. Add the orange and lemon juice together in a small bowl, and whisk in the grated ginger. Pour into the sugar/yeast mixture and add the zest. Mix completely. Add the water. Stir well to combine.

2. Close container and place in a cool, dark place for 48 hours. Open and check for desired carbonation. Place in the refrigerator for 24 hours and enjoy!

Dark and Stormy
3 oz rum (traditionally this drink is made with Gosling’s Black Seal rum, but any dark rum will do)
6 oz ginger ale (dark and stormy’s are traditionally made with ginger beer, which is a spicier version of ginger ale. If you don’t make your own, I suggest purchasing a good ginger beer, such as Fentimans Ginger Beer or Reed’s Ginger Beer)
2 1/2 tbsp lime syrup (add 1/2 cup lime juice to 1/2 cup sugar and bring to a boil, chill before use)
1 tbsp lime juice
lime wedges
ice

1. Combine the rum, ginger ale, syrup and lime juice. Stir and pour over ice. Garnish with lime wedge.

The festival may be all about the music, but with a chef who knows his stuff in charge, this year Lollapalooza shakes things up with an array of food offerings with everything from truffle fries to pork belly sliders

With a last minute decision to go to Lollapalooza, I was excited about the music, of course. But more importantly, I wanted to try the food. Buzz had been brimming for weeks about Graham Elliot Bowles’ culinary direction for the festival, and instead of the normal hot dogs, barbecue chicken and popcorn, we could look forward to pork belly sliders, truffle/Parmesan popcorn and Mexican style corn.

With music blaring from all corners, the food was everywhere. The crowd swarmed with huge plates of perfectly fried chips from BJ’s Market, baskets of thick-cut truffle fries from The Southern or folks cooling off with chocolate covered frozen cheesecakes on a stick from Windsor Ice Cream Shoppe. The sea of American Apparel and Urban Outfitters clad kids, hoping to hear Metric, The XX and Phoenix, were more than happy to wait in line for Kuma’s Corner, Big Star, and Franks N’ Dawgs. Hipster music, hipster food. If people weren’t eating they were talking about food. “What’s that?” someone asked, pointing at our tostada. “That was so good,” another guy said as we walked by.

“That doesn’t look like a cupcake you see at a festival,” a fedora-sporting girl said as we waited in the massive Kuma’s line. The black-and-white More cupcake ($4), topped with perfect marbled chocolate curls was intense. “It’s like fudge on top, bread on the bottom,” my boy grinned as he dug in.

Kuma’s didn’t disappoint, the gigantic Judas Priest burger easily the best deal at $10. Pretzel bun, huge beef patty, dried cherries, blue cheese dressing, walnuts and apples- just like at the restaurant. Another favorite, Big Star’s tostada ($7)- pork belly with black beans, red onion and cilantro- was filling and a good rendition of the restaurants version. Graham Elliot’s lobster corn dog ($9), with a tangy lemon aioli, was a bit small for the price and not quite crunchy enough although the aioli was perfect with the lobster.

For all the great food, the beer selection was traditional festival ware, leaving much to be desired. Budweiser and Bud Light tall cans for $7 is not what you want to drink with a lobster corn dog or truffle French fries, and with Goose Island as a vendor, it would have been great to have a Matilda. Maybe next year?

On the train ride home, mixed in between conversations of the previous day’s Lady Gaga performance, people were still all about the food. “The burrito was awesome, it had spicy black beans and goat cheese. It made my life,” a girl nearby us said. It just goes to show that funnel cake and hot dogs won’t cut it anymore. Three cheers Mr. Bowles.

Save the fresh taste of Illinois sweet corn for a few extra months with this earthy fire-roasted corn relish.

Katherine Sacks

In the hot days of July, summer’s bounty is in full swing, and it’s finally time for Illinois corn. Known as the Corn Belt, more corn is grown in the Midwest then anywhere else, and in the summer months you can find the sweet varieties everywhere from farmer’s markets to restaurants to plain Jane grocery stores.

Grilled and topped with a lime marinade and feta cheese, like Matt Armendariz suggests, corn becomes the perfect summer treat. But oh-too-quickly the sweet summer corn will disappear from farmer’s market stands, leaving behind frozen bags and dreams of next summer.

Instead, preserve some of this year’s loot in this fire-roasted corn relish. You’ll capture all the wonderful flavors of summer, savoring the sweet flavors of corn and pickled cippolini onions just as the autumn leaves are starting to fall. The perfect mix-in for salads, the relish is also a wonderful addition to this Lime and Cilantro Cornbread or spooned on top of do-it-yourself tacos. So head to the market so you can enjoy corn throughout the fall!

Fire-Roasted Corn Relish with Cippolini Onions(makes two 8-0z jars)
Vegetable Oil
6 cippolini onions, preferably small
1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
10 ears of corn, shucked and stalks removed
2 red bell peppers
1 tbsp whole grain mustard
2 tbsp hot sauce (I use Valentina’s brand)
3 tbsp honey( I use Chicago Honey Co-op)

1. Cut the green stems off the cippolini onions. Remove the outer skin, using a sharp paring knife. If you purchase the onions from the farmer’s market, there may be only a small layer of outer skin. If you purchase them from the grocery store, they may have several layers of thicker, more onion-like skin. Soaking in water before removing the skin will help to remove it, but dry-off thoroughly after. If the cippolinis are larger, cut in half.

2. Place a large, heavy-duty pot over medium-high heat. Add 1 tbsp of vegetable oil and move the pot around so that the oil coats the bottom of pot. Heat the pot thoroughly, around 3 to 5 minutes. Add cippolini onions, being careful because they may splatter. Cook onions so that dark golden browning occurs on all sides, but be careful for burning. Move onions around occasionally. When onions are browned, add the vinegar and the sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil, cover the pot and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the onions become translucent and soft.

3. While the onions are cooking, heat an outdoor grill or grill pan on your stove. Coat the corn and bell peppers in a thin layer of vegetable oil and place on the grill. Cook the peppers, turning occasionally, until all sides are charred completely. Cook the corn until the desired variation of color has been achieved. You should have a mixture of golden brown, charred and yellow kernels.

4. Place the peppers in a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap(the steam will further cook the vegetables, allowing for easy removal of the skins). Place one corn cob on a cutting board at a time, and cut down the cob, removing the kernels. Do this to all of the corn cobs(you can save the cobs for vegetable stock). Next, remove the peppers from the bowl carefully, and peel away the charred skin. It may be helpful to do this under cold water, as the peppers will be very hot. Carefully cut one side of the pepper open and remove the seeds and top. Pat the peppers dry with paper towels. Lay the cleaned peppers on the cutting board, trim away any blemishes and cut into a small dice, roughly 1/4-inch small square pieces.

5. When the cippolini onions are soft and translucent, add the mustard, honey and hot sauce to the pot. Add the corn and diced bell pepper, turn up the heat and bring back to boiling for five minutes. Reduce heat, cover and let simmer for 15 minutes. Taste and adjust for desired seasonings. Cool completely.

6. Once cooled, pack relish into two 8-oz jars. Relish will keep three months in refrigerator and up to six months if frozen.

Ten years after publishing his memoir Kitchen Confidential, revealing the sometimes dark and gritty culinary world , Anthony Bourdain is a changed man. No longer the chef who wields sharp knives and works dinner service, he has hosted the Emmy Award winning Travel Channel show, No Reservations for the past decade, running around the globe in search of bizarre and unusual cultures, foods, and peoples in countries like Columbia, Ghana, and Vietnam. His new book, Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook, explains his departure from the kitchen, how it feels to sell out, and what parenthood can do to a rock and roll chef.

On Thursday, June 24, the Harold Washington Library Center, 400 S. State Street, hosted Bourdain for a book reading and signing. The sarcastic author read an excerpt from the book discussing his opinions on Food Network celebrity hosts, cracked more than a few jokes about everyone from cooking celebrity Sandra Lee to himself and answered questions from a crowd of roughly 250. Selected audience questions and Bourdain’s responses have been condensed below.

Katherine Sacks

If you had to eat one style of food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
If I was going to a desert island and had to eat one genre of food everyday for the rest of my life, then I would travel with a really high-end sushi chef. If I could eat good sushi everyday for the rest of my life, I would not be unhappy about that.

Of all of the places you’ve been to, if you could only go to one of them again, where would it be?
It would depend where I’m at in my head. If everything in my life went horribly wrong, and I wanted to end up someplace as the tragic hero- the fantastic, poetic end to my life, I would go to Vietnam. If I ended up a broken man, alone, at least I would be eating delicious pho and watching life in Vietnam around me. That would be the consolation prize to an otherwise misspent life. I would be very happy there. The plan is, I want to go like Marlon Brando in the Godfather, but in Italy. I re-married an Italian woman, my daughter is a dual citizen. If everything goes perfect, I’m going to retire to Italy or Sardinia. I want to grow tomatoes in my backyard; I want to make really crappy wine. Someday chasing my granddaughter and grandson around the tomato vine I’m gonna keel over from a fucking heart attack. Right now, ask this question of ten really great chefs, a whole hell of a lot of them would say San Sebastian, they would say a restaurant called Etxebarri up in the mountains outside of San Sebastian with this dude, he just grills stuff, little eels, homemade chorizos, beautiful ham, two or three ingredients, cooked up in a little pub outside Basque country. You know keeling over stone dead with a half eaten piece of Iberico ham in your mouth, there’s worse ways to be.

What is a good cookbook to learn to cook from?
Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, it’s the Bible. When all else fails, go to Julia. I mean I love it. That’s it. You can barely do better than that. It’s just a terrific, terrific, terrific book. If you don’t trust a recipe or another recipe doesn’t work, those will always, always work.

Can you talk about your writing process?
Everything I learned as a dishwasher, no joke. I learned to show up on time and do the best you can. Given the opportunity to write a book I will deliver it on time and wake up early everyday and do the best I can to write it. What is my writing process? I don’t give myself anytime to think about the million and one reasons why I can’t or shouldn’t write the book. If I was sitting around staring at the ceiling thinking about, ‘Gee, what do they expect?,’ ‘What is the market like right now?,’ I’d never be able to write a word. I wake up, immediately start writing, write as long, as fast as I can, shove it in a drawer, don’t read it for weeks, because if I read it right away I’ll become miserable and critical and edit myself out of existence. I just go and I go and I go. I come from an oral tradition of storytelling. I’m not agonizing, I’m not Marcel Proust agonizing over sentences. You know, I write the way I talk.

Why this book, why now?
I wrote this book because it had been ten years since I wrote Kitchen Confidential, which is still selling like crazy, which I’m happy about but on the other hand I felt it was important to state publicly that I am no longer a working chef. In fact, it’s been ten years, I’m no longer in that tribe. It would be a mistake to assume that I am. I don’t work everyday, I wouldn’t be good at it anymore.

Where haven’t you been that you want to go in your travels?
I haven’t been to Cuba. I try every year and something always goes wrong. I really want to go before, you know. I assume that as soon as Castro hits the floor, they’ll be opening a W Hotel there. So I kinda want to see history, I want to go to Cuba and I want to see the greatest baseball players of the world play for $29 a month. So that’s a place I really want to shoot that we haven’t been able to. They’ll let us in, we’ll let us out, but it’s always getting the permits to move as freely as we want to that’s the problem.

In your opinion, what will it take to see a shift away from the Rachel Ray food culture?
An alternate universe. It won’t happen. It’s a spectacular success, people love that stuff, Food Network is putting up bigger and better numbers. Look at all the great newspapers that have been closing down in this country, all the great magazines that are evaporating.  All those Food Network magazines are a huge success story, so people like it, it’s the way it is. It’s Rachel’s world, I just live in it now.

If you were starting again, would you go into again?
Would I do it all over again? Yes. I wouldn’t change anything, I would do everything exactly the same again. I wouldn’t miss any of it, the good and the bad. I’m quite sure that if I could go back in time and confront myself at age 17 and say, listen the following really, really bad things are gonna happen. You know, heroin is gonna cause you a problem a little bit down the line, this is a bad career move, this and that, I’d do the same things. I’d ignore my own advice, from me.

What was the last thing you cooked?
Hmm, that was a long time ago. I think I made spaghetti alla bottarga, you know at home.

Favorite places to eat in Chicago?
I have a very narrow view. Anything Paul Kahn is associated with is worth paying attention to. I’m a big fan of the hot dog place I’m not going to mention because the line is already too long. And I really hate your fucking pizza.

The end of June in Southern California means the farmer’s market is bustling with fruit, bright juicy peaches from Regier Farms, sweet succulent strawberries from Harry’s Berries, and oh-so-sweet Santa Rosa Plums. Walking through the markets in Chicago, my taste buds yearn for these fruits, but here, on the other side of the country, the farmer’s offer instead cherries, strawberries, and raspberries. Stone fruit is nowhere to be seen, and the strawberries, lighter varieties that seem to hold more water, pale in comparison. Still fruit is fruit, and fruit is glorious.

One way to showcase the fruit is with this flourless chocolate cake. Although chocolate is often thought to be heavy, using milk chocolate gives the cake a lighter taste and the airy texture imparted from the whipped and folded egg yolks and whites of the cake makes it the perfect ending to a summer dinner party. Tossing the berries in sugar and lime juice brightens the fruit up, and makes a nice topping for the torte. Enjoy!

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Berries, adapted from Bon Appetit, January 1999
For cake
12 ounces milk chocolate, chopped
6 ounces unsalted butter, cut into pieces

6 large eggs, separated
12 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

For the fruit
2 cups strawberries, cleaned and quartered
2 cups cherries, halved and pitted
1/4-1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 limes
2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Make cake:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch-diameter springform pan. Combine the 1/4 cup sugar with the cinnamon and shake it around the inside of the pan, making sure the the bottom and sides are evenly covered in a thin layer of sugar. Wrap the outside of the pan with tin foil and place the pan on a sheet tray. Set aside.

2. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl over a double boiler on low heat, or carefully in a microwave, until melted completely and smooth. Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm.

3. Place the egg yolks and 6 tablespoons of sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer or large bowl and using a hand held mixer, mix on low speed until mixture is thick and pale yellow, about 4 minutes. Add a small amount of the chocolate to the yolks, and fold to combine. Fold in half of the remaining chocolate, combine and then add the last of the chocolate. Fold in the vanilla and the 1 tablespoon cinnamon.

4. In a clean bowl, using clean and dry beaters or mixer, mix the egg whites on low speed until they are frothy. Slowly rain in the remaining 6 tablespoons of sugar as you mix the whites, until medium-firm peaks form. The whites should become shiny and smooth. Add 1/3 of the whites to the chocolate mixture and combine thoroughly. Add an additional 1/2 of the whites to the chocolate and carefully fold the mixtures together. Add the remaining whites and fold to combine. Pour the batter in the prepared pan.

5. Place cake on center shelf of over, and bake until top is puffed and cracked and tester inserted into center comes out with some moist crumbs attached, about 50 minutes. Cool cake completely in pan on rack (cake will fall).

6. While cake is cooling, combine the fruits, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Zest the limes over the fruit and then juice the limes into the fruit. Let sit. Once cake is completely cool, use a small knife to cut around pan sides to loosen cake. Remove pan sides. Using a long, off-set spatula, carefully lift the cake off of the bottom of the pan. Place on a cake stand. Fill the inside cavity of the cake, where it has fallen with the fruit.

When you read about the Purple Pig, with it’s focus on small plates of housemade charcuterie, cheeses and classics from the Mediterranean, you might think you are going to a small, neighborhood spot where a heavily accented waiter will serve you rich red wine and hopefully whisk you off to Italy.

Instead, the rustic wine bar, an open kitchen looking out onto deep wooden, high-top communal tables and Spanish-style tiles framing the walls, finds its home on Magnificent Mile, and by mid-afternoon it’s full of the busy, worked men and women of the financial district, desperate for a glass of Sangiovese and a plate of fried sardines.

The menu is alluring and tempting, full of antipasti, cured meats, cheeses, and smears – everything is here from pork liver pate to roasted bone marrow. The section devoted to “fried things” is reason enough to come, with options like fried manchego – the earthy, musky cheese covered in ground panko crumbs and fried to a warmed state, served alongside sweet quince jam-  and fried pig’s ears with pickled cherry peppers. Tiny, crisp arancini are filled with sweet mashed peas, placed on top of smooth, creamy fresh ricotta and bright, lemony mint pesto – the perfect combination of the textures of crunch and creamy, and flavors, salty and sweet.

A la plancha offers hearty lamb leg with fava beans and jamon serrano served with a fried egg and grilled bread, alongside lighter dishes like sepia with snap peas or skewered scallops layered with bay leaf and served with a chickpea aioli. The sepia is lightly grilled, and toasted with darkly roasted almonds and bright, crunchy snap peas, in a warm, tangy vinaigrette. It’s the perfect summer afternoon dish.

Antipasti includes staple marinated olives, classic beets with goat cheese and pistachio vinaigrette, and playful olive oil-poached tuna with Greek lima beans.

While the menu is enticing, the food itself is a bit unbalanced in it’s preparation, leaning too heavily on vinegar or lacking seasoning. Artichokes served with potatoes and salami are soaked in an stringent mustard vinaigrette, the potatoes are unevenly cooked, some are soft while others are too firm, and the flavor from the Tuscan salami is lost in the vinegar. Grilled lamb leg is on the edge of being over seasoned as well, quite salty, and the accompanying fava beans are mushy and overpowered by the tart, salty Kalamata olives they are served with.

Dolci includes a piping hot, golden brioche donut, filled with fresh ricotta and chocolate chips- sweet, crispy, and delicious. Butterscotch budino is not as satisfying, the pudding is slightly overcooked and lumpy, the flavor off.

Whether it’s after a long day at work along the strips of the business buildings of downtown or during a shopping break, The Purple Pig is a nice spot for a glass of wine, some cheese, and nibbles. Go early to avoid the early evening hours, the food and service is better without the clatter of the full restaurant, and you’ll miss having to wait for a table.

Mixing Korean and Puerto Rican? Try it at Bucktown’s Belly Shack.

Under the train tracks at Milwaukee and Western, Belly Shack mashes up two cuisines in a bout of creative, culinary charm. Urbanbelly’s Bill Kim and Yvonne Cadiz-Kim mix their Korean and Puerto Rican heritages at this bare bones, industrial feeling BYO.

Soft Puerto Rican bread is filled with earthy lemongrass meatballs and topped with rice noodles and spicy sauce, or fill your own with the Korean kogi, sweet barbecued meat and tangy kimchi. Crispy fries in tograshi spice pair with a rich curry mayo. End with sweets – soft serve topped with crumbled bacon bits and chocolate chip cookies or drizzled with dark caramel sauce and Vietnamese cinnamon.

Although you can’t help but feel that the place is a rip on David Chang, this is Chicago, miles from New York City, and the kimichi sandwiches and played up soft serve go down nicely.

Unfortunately, the food is a bit overzealous in the seasoning, probably much better at 2 a.m. after a long night of drinking. The tograshi fries are swimming in spice, the curry mayo is overpowering. And the subtle flavoring of the Asian meatball sandwich is lost in overwhelming, spicy sauce.

And one last thought, at a place called Belly Shack, where is the pork belly?

by Katherine Sacks/MEDILL

Rogers Park community sprouts vegetable garden in former victory garden lot from Katherine Sacks on Vimeo.

Waiting in line at Muller Meats, her local butcher, LaManda Joy, had an epiphany- of the gardening kind.

Looking over at the wall of old photographs, she noticed a photo of a victory garden, a topic Joy had recently begun to research. Suddenly, the spark.

The photo was the empty lot at Peterson and Campbell, an intersection a few blocks from her home, a lot she regularly drove by. Joy began to dream up the community garden she would re-create in the space and she immediately contacted Patrick O’Conner, the alderman for the community.

“I told him the story and he was like, absolutely,” she said. “I mean he said, ‘Yes,’ before I was even done.”

Within a matter of weeks, Joy, an award-winning home gardener, started the Peterson Garden Project and soon volunteers, sponsors and donors were on board. People eagerly contacted Joy to donate supplies, their time, space or even a few seedlings for the future garden plots. The group has held fund-raisers, a seed swap and sing-alongs to help build community spirit, excitement, and funds for the project.

The 140 garden plots will be tended by community members ranging from families, the elderly, young children, and singles, who will grow organic vegetables from June through October. Volunteers will tend several of the garden plots to donate produce to local Rogers Park food shelters. Joy even sourced seeds similar to those grown in the original 1940s era victory gardens to grow several plots with historical vegetables. She calls this “history re-eating itself.”

Although many of the participants, both volunteers and gardeners, have no prior gardening experience, the project’s members, like volunteer Jamie Wolfe, are excited to be participating.

“I like the history of the victory garden and the organic gardening,” she said. “It’s great to get back to the basics.”

At the ground-breaking ceremony on Friday, many of the gardeners and volunteers sang the popular depression-era Hank Williams song, “Wait for the Light to Shine,” an example of how the group will combine gardening, community activities and the arts into the project. Joy chose this song because it focuses on neighbors working together and helping each other, which are key for the success of the garden project.

Over the next week, Joy and her team of more than twenty volunteers will prepare the land for gardening.  The lot will be mowed, cleared, and leveled with fill and wood chips. The garden beds will be constructed and a small stage may be built, so the community can gather on the weekends for music. The gardeners should begin planting seeds and seedlings into the finished plots over the Memorial Day weekend, just in time for the summer gardening season.

With support from the alderman’s office, the Peterson Garden Project will be allowed to use the land, which is owned by Asian Human Services, for the following two years. During this time, Joy, the volunteers and gardeners hope to raise the funds to buy the lot and make the garden a permanent setting in the community.

by Katherine Sacks/MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Shop at the farmers market for produce picked 24 to 48 hours before hand.

From wilted, slimy lettuce to moldy tomatoes, finding spoiled produce in the refrigerator is an unfortunate experience.

Spoilage, a general term defined as the point when food is no longer desired to be consumed, can be caused by bacteria or microbacterial processes that result when a product is exposed to high humidity or temperature, according to Kevin Keener, professor of food science at Purdue University in West LaFayette, Ind.

But making the effort to shop the right way and put your products away correctly takes it the extra mile, said Melissa Graham, founder of Chicago’s non-profit Purple Asparagus, which works with children and families to promote healthy eating.

“If you spend that extra time to put it away properly, you will be able to keep the produce fresher longer, protecting your investment.”

Here are five tips to help you keep your produce fresh and bacteria at bay:

Farm picked
Food is as its freshest when it has just been harvested, and it reduces in quality as time passes. Shopping at the farmers’ market can be the first step in ensuring fresh, quality goods, said Graham.

“If you’re going to the farmers’ market, you’re probably 10 steps ahead of the process,” she said, “because everything has been picked 24 to 48 hours beforehand. If you’ve got farmers’ market produce, it can last in your fridge for weeks.”

Nell Funk, owner of Evanston’s Now We’re Cooking, a culinary center that offers classes and events, suggested buying in bulk at the markets to have fresh products throughout the year.

“Use some fresh and put some away,” she said. “Make jams and chutneys, herb vinegars and pestos. Utilize bulk product and have it throughout the year.”

Shop Smart
When shopping for produce, whether at the market or at a grocery store, Graham said to look for firm products that don’t have any yellow tints, softness, or wrinkles on them. And make sure to pick products that have no visible damages or bruises on them.

The skin of fruit and vegetables shields it from outside bacteria. There is a “protective layer on the outside of apple,” and other fruits and vegetables, said Keener. “The bacteria are looking for the same things we like, they are looking for sugar and nutrients. Once the outer layer is damaged there is nothing to stop bacteria.”

Ask about safety
Whether at the farmers’ market or grocery store, ask about the food safety program and how the produce was handled during processing and storage. Look for products that are picked fresh and kept under refrigeration methods.

“I ask what their food-safety program is, and many are willing to share information about their programs,” said Keener. “That’s the person I want to buy from. If I’m going to be eating the product, I want to know they are aware of food safety.”

Store it right
Use the crisper the way you should, said Graham. “There is a high humidity and a low humidity. The high humidity is for your greens and your herbs, and the low humidity is where you put your apples and harder vegetables that don’t have as much water content.”

Store fruits and vegetables in airtight containers, especially once produce has been sliced. “If you wanted to preserve the crispness, I would look to get these package containers designed for vegetables and fruit storage, which eliminates high moisture loss,” said Keener.

He emphasized that once produce is sliced, which exposes new areas to bacteria, the items become potentially harmful, and need to be stored properly and in refrigeration.

Crisp it up
Carrots can loose their structure and become soft in the refrigerator due to a loss of moisture, Keener said. “The reason those go soft is because when you harvest them they have a high amount of water. Although the fridge has a high amount of humidity, you have to keep humidity at about 100 percent,” which cannot be done, he said.

He suggested peeling flabby carrots to remove any surface contamination, and then placing the peeled carrots in a container of ice water for several hours. He said they “will reabsorb a certain amount of water and become crisp again.”

Another way to use of ice water is for keeping herbs fresh. “A really great way to store herbs is in a cup full of water,” said Graham. “I like to keep the plastic produce bag over the cup, and that can keep fresh cilantro or parsley up to two weeks.”

Bring on the freeze
To extend shelf life, try freezing said Nell Funk. “It’s great for something like root vegetables,” she said. “They will last all winter, which is a great way of preserving the freshness.”“

“The faster produce is frozen, the more like the fresh produce it’s going to be,” said Keener. To do this at home, he said to place a thin tray near the fan of the fridge until cold, then lay the item out in a think layer and place in the freezer.

If you purchase a large amount of an item, Keener also suggested asking a local restaurant to use their freezers, which may be equipped for quick-freezing, during a slow period.