How to Clean & Store Garden Lettuce
There is nothing better than fresh garden vegetables, and tender young lettuce is no exception. Once you try it, you're hooked. It's easy to grow and produce an entire season's worth of good eating, but you must take care with washing fresh lettuce. Straight from the soil with all its bugs, slugs and organic matter, uncleaned lettuce can make you ill. Does this Spark an idea?
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Lidded coffee can
- Gasoline
- Large bowl
- Distilled white vinegar
- Cold water
- Paper towels
- Baggies
Instructions
-
-
1
Pour an inch of gasoline into a lidded coffee can. You can siphon a bit from the lawnmower.
-
2
Harvest only enough lettuce to eat within the day. Cutting and cleaning a stockpile allows bacteria to re-grow before you can eat it.
-
-
3
Examine your freshly cut lettuce before bringing it into the house. With your fingers, carefully separate the leaves. Pick out clumps of soil hiding between them. Occasionally, you may find a slug or bug. If so, remove it, but don't throw it back into the garden. Drop it into the gasoline.
-
4
Take the lettuce to a sink and using your fingers, gently tear each leaf from the base of the plant.
-
5
Plunge the leaves into a bowl of vinegar and wash each one between your thumb and forefinger. Let them sit in the vinegar for three to five minutes, which, according to Colorado State University Extension, effectively kills e-coli bacteria. E-coli finds its way onto lettuce leaves via composts with manure in them.
-
6
Get rid of the vinegar. Rinse the lettuce in cold water, setting each leaf on a paper towel as you go.
-
7
Lay another paper towel on top of the first one and gently press to dry the lettuce.
-
8
Wrap the leaves loosely in a clean paper towel and insert into a baggie. Refrigerate it until you are ready to serve it. This will keep it from wilting.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Lettuce can be planted every three weeks for a steady flow of salad greens from spring through fall.
