primitives discuss lettuce, bags, and heads

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x88865

Oh my.

Syrinx  (1000+ posts)        Mon Aug-22-11 05:35 AM
Original message
 
Lettuce. Bags and heads.

What's going on?

If I buy a bag of lettuce, like Dole's or Fresh Express, it starts to rot in a day or two.

But I have some iceberg in my fridge, that I cut and cleaned myself, that is still green and crispy after almost three weeks!

What's going on with that?

Denninmi  (1000+ posts)      Mon Aug-22-11 09:16 AM
Response to Original message
 
1. Well, anything that is cut has more surface area to oxidize.

So it's naturally going to brown faster.

I'm very leery of prepared salads, to me its a big bacteria fest waiting to happen. I realize that if I dine out (which is rare) and get a salad, that is what I'm getting 99% of the time unless its a very upscale restaurant (which is about 1% if the 1%).

I have bought prepared salad items a a few times for various reasons -- only way to find the ingredient I want, or time pressures, but I always rewash them really carefully.

You might try repackaging into one of those "Green Bags" -- they really do keep produce fresh a lot longer. Also, make sure it isn't sitting in water, which would make it rot faster. Finally, my last tip, you can sprinkle about a quarter of a teaspoon of powdered Vitamin C on it (Fruit Fresh), but rinse before use or it may be unpleasantly sour.

Warpy  (1000+ posts)        Mon Aug-22-11 02:00 PM
Response to Reply #1
 
3. As I understand it, the cut greens are dunked in a weak sodium metabisulfate solution to kill all the bugs, spun dry, and then bagged. The problems with the bagged baby spinach salad came from an effluent plume from a neighboring commercial pig farm, if memory serves me, so the washing didn't work on the bugs the plants had taken up internally.

I've had bagged greens last a long while as long as the bag hasn't been opened. Once it's opened, it turns into brown mush in record time, so I only buy it as a rare treat and when I know I'm going to eat it all within a couple of days.

Eating raw produce is a risk in most countries. It's really very clean here, or it has been, so the risk is an acceptable one here.

Syrinx  (1000+ posts)        Tue Aug-23-11 03:32 AM
Response to Reply #1
 
5. Fresh Express seems to do better with drying their greens than Dole does

And they do also seem to last a little longer, but not much.

trud  (1000+ posts)      Thu Aug-25-11 06:16 AM
Response to Reply #1
 
9. bacteria fest

That's my thought about bagged salads also. With regular greens, you can see what you're getting. With those things, a few times when I opened them stuff had brown edges, so I said forget it.

Glad to see another iceberg lettuce person.

kestrel91316  (1000+ posts)        Mon Aug-22-11 01:15 PM
Response to Original message
 
2. Kind of says something about how old that stuff in the bags is.......

Syrinx  (1000+ posts)        Tue Aug-23-11 03:33 AM
Response to Reply #2
 
6. maybe so

I wonder how long it takes for the lettuce to go from the field to a plastic bag in my grocery store? I never really thought about that before, but I think I'll look into it, and see if I can find out.

Lucinda  (1000+ posts)        Mon Aug-22-11 03:05 PM
Response to Original message
 
4. I used to buy baby spinach in bags but stopped for that very reason. I wish I had a farmers market close by...or a bigger yard!

Syrinx  (1000+ posts)        Tue Aug-23-11 03:34 AM
Response to Reply #4
 
7. I would love to have a bigger yard...

More and better topsoil, and lower humidity.

cbayer   (1000+ posts)      Tue Aug-23-11 10:35 AM
Response to Original message
 
8. I've stopped buying the bags and other containers because I end up throwing so much away.

I really, really like those heads of boston lettuce that are still alive. If you keep a little water around the roots, they can last for weeks.

And a head of romaine, carefully tended will also last for weeks.

trud  (1000+ posts)      Thu Aug-25-11 06:19 AM
Response to Reply #8
 
10. water around the roots

That reminds me, somewhere, maybe DU, I read about planting the cut off bottoms of celery bunches. I did that several days ago with two, have kept them well watered, and new celery is growing from the centers.

beac  (1000+ posts)      Thu Aug-25-11 01:15 PM
Response to Reply #10
 
11. Never heard of that. What a good idea!

Did you plant them in a pot or in the ground? I wonder how much root space they need?

trud  (1000+ posts)      Fri Aug-26-11 07:42 AM
Response to Reply #11
 
12. in a big container

I forked out for another big container for my deck a few months ago. I find as I get more creaky, I grow more stuff, even veggies, there than out in the very windy garden which requires a lot of weeding since I don't get out there often enough to keep up with it.

Off the top of my head, this container's about 3-4 feet long, more than a foot high, and more than a foot wide. I have a lot of stuff in those containers - a forsythia which I keep trimmed down, iris, beans, strawberries, flowers, etc.

But I don't think celery needs a lot of room is my guess. I think it should be quite happy with a foot of depth, probably even less.

[Ballygrl]

I've been buying the bags of lettuce at Aldi's for .99 and for some weird reason they're lasting longer in the bag than the Dole or Fresh Express ever did. I make sure to get as much air out of the bag as possible.