Syrinx
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Mon Aug-22-11 04:35 AM
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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?
:shrug:
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Denninmi
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Mon Aug-22-11 08:16 AM
Response to Original message |
1. Well, anything that is cut has more surface area to oxidize. |
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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.
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Warpy
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Mon Aug-22-11 01:00 PM
Response to Reply #1 |
3. As I understand it, the cut greens are dunked in a weak sodium metabisulfate |
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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.
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Syrinx
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Tue Aug-23-11 02:32 AM
Response to Reply #1 |
5. Fresh Express seems to do better with drying their greens than Dole does |
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And they do also seem to last a little longer, but not much.
Thanks for the tips/
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trud
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Thu Aug-25-11 05:16 AM
Response to Reply #1 |
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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.
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kestrel91316
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Mon Aug-22-11 12:15 PM
Response to Original message |
2. Kind of says something about how old that stuff in the bags is....... |
Syrinx
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Tue Aug-23-11 02:33 AM
Response to Reply #2 |
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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.
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Lucinda
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Mon Aug-22-11 02:05 PM
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4. I used to buy baby spinach in bags but stopped |
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for that very reason. I wish I had a farmers market close by...or a bigger yard!
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Syrinx
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Tue Aug-23-11 02:34 AM
Response to Reply #4 |
7. I would love to have a bigger yard... |
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More and better topsoil, and lower humidity. :)
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cbayer
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Tue Aug-23-11 09:35 AM
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8. I've stopped buying the bags and other containers because I end up throwing |
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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.
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trud
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Thu Aug-25-11 05:19 AM
Response to Reply #8 |
10. water around the roots |
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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.
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beac
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Thu Aug-25-11 12:15 PM
Response to Reply #10 |
11. Never heard of that. What a good idea! |
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Did you plant them in a pot or in the ground? I wonder how much root space they need?
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trud
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Fri Aug-26-11 06:42 AM
Response to Reply #11 |
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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.
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Thu May 02nd 2024, 05:31 AM
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