Leafy Greens

I couldn't resist taking pictures as we prepared our own "bagged salad" the other night. Everything was just so beautiful.

This being my first experience with radicchio, I was amazed by how beautifully the leaves nestled inside each other. I assure you I knew what radicchio was, I just never had the chance to take it apart!

Ger did the rinsing, and, boy, was there a lot of mud in the sink afterward!


I got to whirl it all in the salad spinner. We resisted buying a spinner for a long, long time, because it takes up a lot of space, but I love the thing. When we decided we wanted one, I told my mom, and she found one for me at a rummage sale that same week. It was only $2 and it works a treat!

The finished product.

Now, normally, we wouldn't just shove the lettuce into a plastic bag, but we had some special produce bags here, and they really do seem to work. When we're storing our leafy greens for a longer time or in a regular plastic bag, we throw a paper towel in with them.

What's your method for keeping leafy greens fresh?

Herbal Update

Just a quick note to say that this storage method has worked just fine for the herbs for now. It may require some tweaking once the really hot weather sets in, but everything was still lovely and fresh this morning!

We have a batch of iced tea brewing right now with some fresh mint, and I am doing an experiment with the lemon balm which I will tell you about tomorrow!

Fridge, Freeze, Dry or ??

I couldn't resist taking this picture of the three herbs! The color of those chive flowers along with the green--isn't it beautiful?

Now, how to keep them beautiful. Last year, storing the herbs we received was one of our biggest failures. It seemed like no matter what we did, they looked terrible by the next day. My mom keeps telling me to dry them, but I want to use the NOW, of course! I do like the idea of freezing leaves of mint and lemon balm into ice cubes. That would be a convenient way to add a little different flavor to iced tea. Of course I gave all of our ice cube trays away when we got a fridge with an ice maker!


For now, I have the stems submerged in a glass of water, like flowers in a vase. I've been searching online for other tips. Some sites recommend putting a plastic bag loosely over the tops of the herbs after you've put them in water and then putting the whole thing in the fridge. Other sites say to wrap them loosely in a moist paper towel. Or there's Oprah's $30 solution, the Herb Savor. Pfft! What really works?