Store lettuce properly to avoid food waste

As most crop prices are going up, so is lettuce. I went to the grocery store on Saturday and got a full head, not half, a sad excuse for a head, after standing at the checkout for an extended period of time calculating what I would spend for a head of lettuce, I decided to buy it anyway. I can't stop thinking about this literally.

So here I was in my kitchen at the ungodly hour, binding the lettuce in a dry cloth and I put it in the coldest part of the refrigerator away from anything that gives off ethylene gas, fruit for instance, an enemy of leafy vegetables and salads. I didn't know that until recently and I felt stupid for not having known this.

Using a cloth to store the lettuce has actually worked, I've seen some people who have taken the time to layer paper towels between the leaves and wrapped completely in paper, I've also seen some people rinse and then spin out the excess water and then store it dry because if you leave excess water on the leaves they'll start to rot before you can get to them. I've found that it's best to remove the outer leaves, those that are damaged as quickly as possible instead of allowing them to damage the other leaves also.

This really isn't hard to do, the extra care we took when throwing away food, we are now taking because the stakes have been raised.

People's attitudes toward food keeping in the house has changed significantly in my community, there is now less wasted food and more intentionality with food, there were no overnight changes to becoming disciplined but because of vegetables we will.