Storing Veggies

When Dani was here for Christmas, we bought this spinach at Costco -I balked because that was a LOT of spinach and I really didn't think we'd eat it all and make it worth the cost. I was SO wrong.

Well, not about not eating it. The holidays were so busy and we were always out and were not eating regular meals, especially not big salads. I certainly wasn't eating any, and she didn't make all the smoothies she thought she would, yada yada....

So I've ignored this bin of spinach in my fridge, dreading getting it out and cleaning out the slimy leaves. It's been in there 3 weeks and I'm imagining the very worst - like the time my mother MAILED me some flowers she'd picked from her patio planter. She was SO PLEASED at how pretty they were, so as a surprise to me, she put several into a baggie, popped them into a manila envelope and sent them off. I open the envelope and find this baggie of brown GOO - it seriously looked like something your doctor might ask you to bring in to the lab. UGH!! (and no note of explanation, so I truly wondered at its contents!!)

But NO! I got brave and opened the plastic container to find great looking spinach! As in, many edible leaves! Yes, there were some slimy ones and the rest of it is actually heading out to the mulch pile this morning. But this is after we made a decent sized salad last night.

Since my previous experience with pre-packed spinach and salads from the grocery store has been rifling through the bags looking for the one with the latest expiration date, in hopes they MIGHT last more than a few days in my fridge, and then they go bad anyway if we don't eat them in like two days; well, this organic spinach - NOT laden with some suspicious preservatives - was a wonderful surprise.

Then I thought the bin would be a great holder for the little toys the kiddos have strewn around upstairs, but Nichole pointed out that it is this magic plastic bin that makes the spinach last so well. She's asked the grocer, it is made of the plastic they use in Green bags, and inhibits the ethylene that makes food decay. (she said Sprouts has smaller versions of these containers, too. The veggies might seem expensive initially, but then you've got this great container for the fridge.) And lest you get really impressed that I knew HOW they worked, I'll confess I wrote oxygen first - but then I went here
Green Bags
to read all about Ethylene (the gas, NOT your great-grandfather's first girlfriend.)

And here is another site which Dani found - How to store fruits and vegetables

Well, now I'm going to use the bin in my drawer with other veggies; we'll see how well the celery or peppers will last in there.

And if it doesn't seem all that much of an improvement, it will instead go upstairs and store legos..... to make THEM last even longer than their million year lifespan.