The spicy rocket, also called salad rocket, is a popular ingredient for starters and colorful salads. The fine leaves also wilt quickly in the refrigerator, but with the following tips you can gain a day or two.

Arugula is best washed and dried well before storage

Store arugula in the refrigerator

Arugula cannot be kept for three to four days. The leaves evaporate a lot of moisture, causing them to quickly become limp and wither. Also note that the vitamin content in sliced rocket falls very quickly, which is why it should be eaten as fresh as possible. To create optimal storage conditions for the lettuce plant, proceed as follows:

  1. If you bought the arugula, remove it from its packaging.
  2. Remove wilted and decayed leaves.
  3. Wash the lettuce thoroughly with cold water.
  4. Drain the arugula thoroughly. Do not use a salad spinner for this, as the forces in it will destroy the leaf structures, causing the leaves to spoil more quickly.
  5. Wrap the rocket loosely in a slightly damp cloth, place it in a sealable container and place it in the vegetable compartment of your refrigerator.

The fresh alternative: growing arugula on the windowsill

If you always want to have fresh arugula available, even outside the outdoor season, and don't want to keep running to the supermarket, you can easily grow the lettuce plant on the windowsill. So you can always cut the required amount of rocket and benefit from the full vitamin content of the fresh leaves.

  1. Fill pots or boxes with soil mixed with some sand.
  2. Dig a seed trough no more than one centimeter deep and do not scatter the seeds too densely.
  3. Push some soil over the seeds and water them vigorously.
  4. Place the pots on a sunny windowsill.
  5. With good watering, the seeds will sprout after a week or two. The seedlings are ready for their first cut after just under a month and can be harvested several times.

If you plant several boxes consecutively, you can harvest fresh arugula all year round. Careful watering of the plants is important to avoid accumulation of nitrate in the leaves. Arugula very rarely needs to be fertilized.

The garden journal freshness ABC

How can fruit and vegetables be stored correctly so that they stay fresh for as long as possible?

The garden journal freshness ABC as a poster:

  • as a free PDF file to print out yourself

Category:

Vegetable garden