Moolie - Happy Thanksgiving :)

[moolie]

So, I read on here a while back about vacuum sealing lettuce in a jar and I finally got around to trying it today.

I tore up, washed, and spun dry two heads of leaf lettuce and then dumped them out onto a clean tea towel and patted it all as dry as I could. Then I stuffed it all into 6 quart wide-mouth canning jars, poured boiling water over 6 previously used flat lids, popped those on top of the jars and dried them off with a tea towel, and vacuum sealed the jars with my second-hand Tilia Food Saver plus Wide Mouth Jar sealer.

They all sealed quite quickly, and now I have super easy lunches for the week along with: cucumber, tomato, celery, radishes, grated carrot and apple, dried cranberries, and sliced almonds.

I make my own salad dressing (2-3 minced garlic cloves, greek oregano, olive oil, rice wine/balsamic/or apple cider vinegar, tablespoon of honey, sometimes a dollop of dijon mustard OR the oil and vinegar with a dollop of home made raspberry jam. Mmmm.

Here's my pretty jars all lined up in the fridge (along with home made yogurt, pickled beets, and canned pears to the right of the lettuce):

And here's my older model FoodSaver and jar sealer attachment:

 

[Beekissed]

Let us know how well and long these keep? I'd never heard of this but am very interested...thanks for posting on it!

 

[moolie]

Will do for sure

I'm going to keep one jar for as long as possible (nice that I can watch the "progress" through the clear glass) to check how much longer lettuce might last in the fridge this way.

The original information came from this website.

And her comparison of how long lettuce lasts stored different ways is here.

 

[SSDreamin]

Maybe I'm just weird (alright, no maybe's about it ) but I thought the texture of the lettuce changed after a week (dry? grainier? something like that). It's hard to explain, and DH thought it was perfectly fine up to the two week mark (that's as far as we got). In MY opinion, by two weeks, it looked fine in the jar, but seemed to slime up some after it was removed :/ Part of the problem was actually removing it from the jar, I think. The directions I followed said to pack it in the jars. I think, at the two week mark, it suffered a great deal of 'bruising' as I fought to get it out of the jar

 

[Denim Deb]

Maybe you needed to bang it against a tree.

 

[SSDreamin]

What?!! And slice my fingers off? Thanks Deb!

 

[Icu4dzs]

Will do for sure

I'm going to keep one jar for as long as possible (nice that I can watch the "progress" through the clear glass) to check how much longer lettuce might last in the fridge this way.

The original information came from this website.

And her comparison of how long lettuce lasts stored different ways is here.

I thought her science was pretty good.she had three trial groups and one control. Her results were well stated and certainly merit trial at home for anyone who fits the demographic she explains. I may even go out and find one of the attachments she mentions so that I don't lose as much lettuce after the first day it is picked.
Cool topic, great subject!
Trim sends
//BT//

 

[moolie]

Forgot to report back about the lettuce experiment, but we were able to keep one jar for a full two weeks. A couple of leaves in the very bottom got soggy from the damp that collected on the bottom of the jar, but the taste and texture of the rest of the lettuce in the jar was good

Been busy with lots of gardening tasks the past couple of weeks and we've got 10 flats of veggie starts that have been growing under lights in the house since late March almost ready to get planted outside, and we've more than doubled our number of raised beds from last year. The apple trees and raspberries are leafing, and our roses and perennials are greening up. I will post photos soon

 

[Denim Deb]

I have plants to get in the ground, but every time I have the time, it's raining. And, when the weather's fine, I have something else I'm doing!

 

[BarredBuff]

Interesting experiment