Washing fresh greens

The high tunnel has been productive this winter season–well, as productive as it can be.  Plants just don’t grow nearly as fast in the winter as they do in the summer.  A wonderful mix of greens just passed through the kitchen sink into the fridge for part of the evening meal.  I get lots of questions about the best way to wash fresh greens.

First off, this is only the way I do it–not a scientific approach at all.  The greens grown on the farm are all organical so the only things that need to be washed off are debris and the occasional snail.  I can deal with things I can see, it’s the things I can’t see that I don’t want to deal with 🙂

Place the greens in a big bowl of cold water:

Then swish the leaves  around with your hand to knock the debris loose.

  I pick it up a few leaves at a time and place in the salad spinner, checking them really well for cleanliness.

 

Once the salad spinner is about 3/4 full, put the lid on and give it a few spins to dry the leaves.   The salad is then ready to mix with whatever other items you want.  This particular mix I call the “Kitchen Sink” salad mix because it contains arugula, lettuce, broccoli raab, spinach, and baby Swiss chard leaves.  A lot of people have never tried baby Swiss Chard leaves in a salad, but they are delicious, and more nutritious when raw.

If you’re not going to eat greens right away, don’t wash them until you’re getting ready to eat or cook them, and keep them in the fridge.

Now, for supper………