If you find lemons on sale, it can be tempting to buy them in bulk to save for use over the course of a few weeks. But America’s Test Kitchen found that if you store these lemons at room temperature, you could be dealing with hard, dry lemons by the time one week is up.

To find the best way to store lemons, ATK decided to test 3 different methods. They stored one batch of lemons at room temperature, one in an uncovered container in the fridge and one in a sealed zipper-lock bag. Here were the results they found:

All the lemons stored at room temperature hardened after a week. But the refrigerated fruits fared much better: The uncovered lemons (which we kept in the crisper drawer) began to lose a small amount of moisture after the first week and 5 percent of their weight in the following weeks; the lemons stored in zipper-lock bags, both with and without water, didn’t begin to dehydrate until four weeks had passed. As it turned out, the water wasn’t offering any preservation benefits, but the zipper-lock bag did seal in some moisture.

To read the entire post, head over to America’s Test Kitchen’s We Prove It: The Best Way To Store Lemons.

Thanks to Lifehacker for the heads up!