Natural Food Preserving

• Hard cheese freshener
  1 tablespoon (18g) salt
  1/2 cup (125mL) warm water
  
  Investing in a large block of hard cheese, like Parmesean, can be so much more economical than buying a number of small packages-but not if your cheese gets moldy before you can use it at all. Here's a time-honored to keep hard cheese fresher longer: Make a brine solution by dissolving the salt in the warm water. Soak a piece of cheese cloth in the mixture, wring it out until it is just damp, and use it to wrap your block of cheese. Place the cheese on a small tray on the back of your refrigerator. The salt in the damp cloth with help prevent mold formation. 

• Egg freshness tester
  2 tablespoons (36g) salt
  2 cups (500ml) water
  
  It's hard to know how fresh an egg might be just by looking at its shell, but you can determine if it's fresh with this simple test: Dissolve the salt into the water and gently lower an egg into the water. If the egg floats, it's past it's prime (because this shows that enough time has passed since the egg was laid for air to penetrate its semi-permeable shell). If it stinks, it's still fresh enough to use. 

• fruit and vegetable shelf-life extender
  1/4 cup (55g) baking soda
  2 paper towels
  
  Humidity is the bane of your refrigerator's crisper drawer. Too much moisture provides an opportunity for microscopic spores on fruits and vegetables to grow more quickly, a problem that can ultimately result in spoiled produce. To help keep conditions in your crisper on the dry side, stack 2 paper towels in the bottom of the drawer and sprinkle 1/4 cup (55g) baking soda in between them. Replace every week or so when you replenish your produce. 

• Maple Syrup Moldy
  
  If you have natural Maple Syrup that gets some mold on it, you can restore it to near normal flavor by first bring it to a boil and then skimming off the mold.
  
  Keep refrigerated after opening.