Seven Steps to a Slug and Dirt-Free Salad
Do you have one of those nightmarish stories in your family? The one that keeps getting told over and over, but you just wished it would go away? My dreadful story involves home-grown lettuce, a baby slug, and my six-year-old daughter.
Yes, mommy was in a hurry. Daddy was out of town, so mommy rushed home from work, picking the child up from daycare, and tried to quickly get dinner on the table. Note that mommy was not too rushed to pick fresh salad greens from the garden, just too rushed to clean them adequately . . .
Thank heavens the slug was seen but not eaten. My daughter, now a teen-ager, recounts the tale regularly – often at dinner gatherings where fresh greens are on the menu, leaving the guests warily eyeing the salad.
“Remember that time you made that salad with a slug in it, mom?” is not what you want to hear as your lovely salad is being served!
Luckily my daughter was not totally turned off of salad. My family eats one with dinner every day. And I love to grow everything I need to pick that salad minutes before it lands on the table. But I always take the time to properly clean the vegetables. Here’s how I do it:
Ready to pick!
- Grow the greens in a clean garden. Mulching the soil under the plants keeps dirt from splashing up on them, so you start with cleaner produce.
- Take a knife, a bucket of water and a big bowl to the garden. Better yet, keep a knife and a bucket out in the garden, ready to use.
- Cut, don’t pull. When you harvest the greens, don’t pull the plant out. This will get dirt everywhere. Instead, cut the greens off at ground level or harvest individual leaves. Radishes, carrots and other root vegetables will be pulled out, of course – just do it slowly and carefully.
- Brush off the plants, and remove unnecessary parts. With your hands, wipe away any dirt clinging to the root crops.Trim unwanted leaves off the lettuce plants. Cut the tops from radishes, carrots and green onions. Drop these into a pile to go to the compost bin.
- Rinse. Swish the plants in the bucket of water to get most of the dirt off. Do the root crops last, since they are the dirtiest. Place the rinsed vegetables in the bowl.
- Rinse again. Carry the bowl of vegetables inside, and fill it with water in the sink. Swish the vegetable around.
- Rinse once more. Quickly rinse each individual lettuce leaf under running water, inspecting it for dirt or those sneaky slugs or bugs. Lay the rinsed lettuce leaves on a towel on the counter. Scrub the root vegetables during this final rinse.
Now your produce has been “triple rinsed” and is slug-free and ready to eat. It all goes very quickly once you get the hang of it.
The saddest part of this tale is that I used to grow baby lettuces, herbs and edible flowers for sale to restaurants and caterers. Of course that lettuce was always triple rinsed and inspected, so I knew the right way to do it.
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Happy Gardening!
Sue
Nightmare, no. But my husband once said – A bit of my salad just got up and walked away. Triple rinsing, seems like an awful lot of water. Ours get washed once, in the sink. With running water only if I’m trying to get rid of something that hangs on, for dear life.
The first two rinses are really just a swish in a bucket of water, so it doesn’t take as much water as you might imagine! It’s the last wash that is most important, though . . .
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