The Produce Problem, Part 1: Lettuce

One of the biggest problems we run into in feeding two people is buying produce and actually using it all before it goes bad. On my long list of things I have no desire to do is estimate the amount I've spent on produce that I never used and threw out. Lettuce is one of the biggest problems. Mother nature just didn't see fit to make lettuce grow in nice, neat, one ounce heads. I would guess that on average, three quarters of the lettuce we buy goes bad. So to solve that problem, I researched some tips on keeping lettuce fresher, longer.

First, let's look at some lettuce facts. Once lettuce comes out of the ground, you've got about 7-10 days before whatever is left goes in the trash. We don't use a whole lot of lettuce because we tend to buy bagged greens when we're going to have salads. We might use it if we're grilling burgers, but what do you need for that...2-3 large leaves? Even if we are making salad, with just two of us, we'd seldom use more than half a head. So that's the main issue: we don't use a lot of it, but there's really no choice to buy it by the head. A head of good (read: not iceberg) lettuce is going to run you $2.00 at the supermarket, so we're basically throwing away $1.50 every time we buy lettuce.

So let's get on with the tips then.

1. BUY LOCAL! I really can't stress this enough. If you have a local farmers market or even a local produce stand, buy your lettuces there. Here's why. Most lettuce in the US, especially iceberg, is grown in California's Imperial Valley. I'm out here on the east coast, so I'm losing half the shelf life of the lettuce in transit. Even assuming that the lettuce takes only one day to go from the ground to the shipping truck, it's going to spend the next three days, minimum, going from California to the supermarket in Baltimore. If it sits in the produce section of the store for a day, I'm at least four or five days into the shelf life of the lettuce before it gets to my house. However, if you can get lettuces at a local produce market or farmers market, you're getting a product that was probably taken from the ground within the last 48 hours and quite possibly the same day.

Buying local isn't just for hippie farmers market people who smell like weed. If you want the freshest produce, that's where you're going to get it. I assure you the large lettuce growers in California and Arizona are going to sell a brazillion tons of lettuce this year. I can also assure you that they don't care about you, and don't care about your local economy. You can find local lettuce in practically any temperate climate. So do yourself and your local produce grower a favor and buy local. Do it now!

2. Preserving lettuce. If you're like me, you're lazy. Crushingly lazy. You've picked up some lettuce, used it for whatever you were going to use it for, and then tossed the rest it in the produce drawer of your fridge. Stop doing that, and start doing this (and this will work for just about any leafy head lettuce except for iceberg (which sucks anyway).

Step 1: Remove all the leaves from the head and soak them in the sink or a large bowl in cold (but not icy) water for 10 minutes or so to loosen up and dirt on the interior leaves.

Step 2: Remove lettuce from the water, rinse and pat dry. Better yet, if you have a salad spinner type device, spin the lettuce to get moisture off the leaves.

Step 3: Lay out about a three foot long length of paper towels. It's okay if they become damp. Wrap the lettuce leaves in the paper towels.

Step 4: Place the wrapped lettuce leaves in a large, zip-lock style freezer bag and seal. Place the bag in the produce drawer of your fridge.

Step 5: Remove lettuce from the bag as needed, re-seal and put the bag back in the fridge.

Pro-Tip: You can re-use the same freezer bag a few times. Just rinse with warm, soapy water before re-using.

I like this method because it appeals to my laziness. It's easy to do and the only items I need are stuff I already have at the house (paper towels and freezer bags). It's especially easy because if I complain enough, Melissa will just do it for me. Using this method, you'll get at least another week out of your lettuce. Some folks out there in internet land claim that it'll keep lettuce fresh up to four weeks.

3. If the method above doesn't appeal to you and you've got 10 bucks (plus shipping) that you're looking to unload, you can always go to the high tech Cadillac of lettuce freshness, The LKS-06 Lettuce Keeper from Progressive International. Despite having an unnecessarily long name and sounding more like a next generation jet fighter, the LKS-06 is actually a mostly plastic device used for keeping lettuce fresh that contains moisture and air flow control. Lists for $9.99 on Amazon.com. I don't feel like giving up the room in my fridge for this thing personally, as the freezer bag method takes up less space, but you may have more real estate avaliable in your fridge and go with this option.

http://www.amazon.com/Progressive-International-LKS-06-Lettuce-Keeper/dp/B000OUY2QO/ref=sr_1_4?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1307544295&sr=1-4

So there you go. Keep lettuce fresher, longer and better tasting.

*Side Note: You may have noticed that I bashed iceberg lettuce a lot. That's becasue it's nutritional value sucks. Here is a comparrison in nutritional content between Romaine lettuce and Iceberg lettuce.

Calories (per cup):
Iceberg: 8
Romaine: 8

Fiber:
Iceberg .7 gram
Romaine: 1 gram

Potassium:
Iceberg: 78 mg
Romaine: 116 mg

Vitamin C:
Iceberg: 1.5 mg
Romain: 11.3 mg - Romain has almost four times more Vitamin C!

Vitamin K (I have no idea what this is but I'm sure it's good for you)
Iceberg: 13.3 mcg
Romaine: 48.2 mcg

Beta Carotene:
Iceberg: 164 mcg
Romain: 1637 mcg (yup, 10 times the Beta Carotene. Think of your eyes, man!)