So.much.lettuce

Our CSA is now if full swing. For the past three weeks the boxes for me and my neighbors have been delivered to their drop site, which is about 10 blocks from our house We’ve gotten an assortment of things, and so far I absolutely love it. It’s fun to see what our “box” will hold each week, and the veggies are gorgeous. Truly. Beautiful. Yesterday our box was stuffed, it had been a good harvest week. We got: turnips, carrots, kale, fennel, lettuce, radishes, napa cabbage, broccoli, beets, green onions, and strawberries. And not an insignificant amount of any of these things. The beets, carrots, turnips, and radishes were all huge and perfect and almost uniformly sized. Really, they were like still-life vegetables. I meant to get a picture but without thinking put everything away. Next week.

We actually got two big heads of lettuce, and we haven’t even polished off the two we got last week. And that does not take into account the 15 or so full heads of lettuce out in the garden. Why did I plant 15+ heads of lettuce you might ask? Why not? So, it is fair to say we have altogether too.much.lettuce.

Lettuce, unfortunately for us, is one of those things you can’t preserve. You can’t freeze it, or can it, and it doesn’t keep too long in the fridge, so you pretty much have to just eat it…and pawn it off on unsuspecting friends and family.

So, what’s the best way to keep lettuce longer? I’ve looked into it, and there seem to be two methods that speak to me:
1) Soak the leaves in cold water, rinsing off the dirt, and then spin them completely dry in a salad spinner. Once done, put them in a plastic bag, squeeze out all the air, and seal it. Should keep about a week (or more) this way.

2) Don’t wash the lettuce, leave the leaves on the stem, cut off a small slice of the stem and cover that with a folded (many times), cold, wet paper towel. Place the whole thing in a plastic bag, squeeze out the air, seal it. Then you wash the leaves when you’re ready to eat them. This also, should keep for about a week (or more).

I guess, given my abundance of lettuce, I should conduct a little study and see which method works better. Um. Maybe next week.