Here’s what they don’t have going for them: economy, sustainability, flavor, shelf-life and freshness. Plastic wrapped greens aren’t very green, are they? (And in the same vein, how much wood could a woodchuck chuck?) If you grow your own greens, chances are that some of those things I just mentioned are important to you. But even life-in-the-slow-lane type people sometimes need a salad in 25 seconds and pre-washed braising greens for dinner.
So here’s how I take my homegrown stuff and pre-prep it.
Wash your harvest. This is what I harvested yesterday: a bunch of frisee, two heads of buttercrunch lettuce and a good bunch of Red Russian and Kavalo Nero Kale. I wash out my sink really well. I also give it a quick wipe-out with a dilute bleach solution followed by a clean-water rinse if I’m worried about anything nasty like meat juices hanging around in the sink. Then I fill up the sink with cold water. I wash multiple types of greens together, but you can go one at a time too. I let my greens soak for a good 15 minutes, which gives and sneaky slugs that might be hiding time to drown and fall to the bottom of the sink. If your greens are really dirty, you can double wash them.
Take your clean greens and give then a spin in your salad spinner. I keep different types of greens separate for this, generally. Get ‘em good and dry, but don’t go crazy: it’s a salad spinner, not a lawn mower. You can rip the handles right off these things. Ask me how I know.
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BioBags (and I’m sure all the other brands out there that are basically the same concept) keep the right amount of moisture around greens. Not too much, not too little. Wrapped in a cloth napkin and sealed up in a BioBag, I get a solid week out of my lettuces and greens.
I do basically the same thing, but I use the Debbie Meyer green bags. I don't know if they are biodegradable, probably not, but I use them over and over and over again. Like you, I can easily get greens to last a week.
great post.. i'm just 'me' so i cheat one more.. i just store them in my salad spinner …. when i'm out, i go pick more…
Thanks for this! We don't grow our greens, but do support local farms, so a lot of our greens come more or less straight from the ground. We have come to expect a little grit in our salads, and unfortunately always have a portion that goes bad (too wet, too dry, too something). This looks like a great method! Recommend any salad spinners in particular?
Annie – I'll look into those green bags, thanks for the tip.
Roasted – If I have just a bit of lettuce, it does keep very well in the salad spinner. Totally agree.
Lauren – Yay for CSAs! I use a Zyliss I picked up at Central Market in Shoreline. It has the pull-type handle. I know a lot of people also love those Oxo push ones.
Great post. I must say however… where did you harvest that lettuce? No way it's overwintered like that, and I didn't see a greenhouse. Hehe. Let us know your secret. I am going to succeed at winter gardening if it kills me.
Back to your actual post. For a while, I thought you were preparing your lettuce to eat, not store, so I was thinking, we just go pick it, rinse it off, spin it and eat it. Come to think of it, we don't store much as we go to the garden when we want a salad. However, I'll remember that for the late spring when my lettuce is starting to bolt and I've got a ton going to waste. I'll store some and let the hens have the rest. Great solution!
As for our compost pail, it's a repurposed kitty litter bucket (I got a ton before they switched to more eco friendly options because I love the buckets). Currently my regular one is letting Mother Nature rinse it out for me since it was getting nasty and I don't have the hose hooked up. I never thought of lining it with a bio bag, most bags are too small. Besides, last year I tried to compost the compostable sun chips bag and it was a dud. I have been pulling bits of chopped up foil bag out of my compost every time I use it. Maybe Cedar Grove can compost those things, but not me.
Erica – I make these amazing cheese cloth fabric veggie bags for a friend of mine. They're re-usable and keep the veggies super fresh because they breathe, but keep the veggies moist. Check out the website here: http://www.beautifulearthbags.com/online-store.php
She's also planning on getting an etsy site up and going soon. I've been planning on doing a post on the veggie bags, so keep an eye out for it!
Forgot to mention that she also makes organic fabric bags as well!
Sinfonian – we do have a 6×8' greenhouse we built from a kit. I generally grow some tomatoes and cukes and peppers in it in the summer (usually have outdoor toms too) and greens in the winter. It's not heated – all passive – and I was ready to write off the entire bunch of overwintering lettuces I put in around Oct (November?) in January. Things were getting a bit slimey. But the 4 or 5 several weeks they've been sizing up nicely. Just harvested a bunch of mustard greens, and lettuce and frisee out of there. Not much lettuce left but lots of frisee.
April – I'll check out that link, thanks!