No more plastic salads

It’s taken me six months to conclude that most plastic I unwittingly used to bring home was solely for convenience. I’ve learned when grocery shopping to root out, or at least recognize and minimize, unnecessary plastic. Salad in a bag, for example, is a time saver conveniently supplying a dump-n-eat healthy dish that I no longer purchase.

I was loathe to give up this item and resisted for a few months, justifying my resistance with the truth that the bags weigh practically nothing, but I cut the ready-made side dish anyway. I’ve discovered by doing so my salads have taken a turn for the better.

Sure, they take a few minutes longer to prepare. I don’t snip a bag, dump the contents and eat. Rather I hand pick the best looking heads of lettuce or bunches of greens, usually two varieties of lettuce or spinach. Now that my not exactly bountiful garden has one good arugula plant, I trim a few leaves from it almost every day. It miraculously regenerates new leaves for the next tiny harvest. So, even with limited garden success, I’m able to add to my store-bought produce the pungent tasting green. The wildlife has also left me plenty of green onions. I pull up a few for each salad and pluck a few cherry tomatoes each day too. Gardening has given me an unexpected surprise — a feeling of accomplishment. Perhaps it fulfills a deep seated hunter, gatherer desire to scrounge, pluck and carry home sustenance. I find it a great source of pride to walk into the house with a handful of food that I grew, nurtured and picked. Even though my garden is by most measures pathetic, I’m still proud I grow a few bites a day.

Washing the greens, for me, is the chore. Swishing and swashing them, visually inspecting each leaf and finding all sorts of debris and bugs made me wonder how well the bags-o-salad contents are washed. What do they do differently than my pick through, spray rinse, big bowl swish, calendar spray method? Use chlorine is part of the answer and still many experts recommend rewashing the triple washed salads anyway. Then the plastic packed greens are pillowed inside the bags with what I thought was air. Not exactly. Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) employs the removal of oxygen and replaces it with inert nitrogen or PH lowering, decay stifling carbon dioxide. This packaging technique, while very good at preserving foods without additives has potential for issues as does any means of extending shelf life.

However well the bags work, I’ve decided I don’t need to buy them to bring home my salad greens. I have not purchased greens in a bag for five months. Confession: I failed to remind Ed to not buy “a bag” last week when I asked him to pick up some spinach or red leaf lettuce on his way home. He’ll see this post and remind me I don’t have to tell the world every little thing he does wrong. Bless him, but I don’t. Other than this one slip, we have gotten along very well without the convenience. In fact I think our salads are better, fresher and prepared with a greater variety than ever before.

I have also made my own dressing for about the same length of time. I was in love with Newman’s balsamic dressing but the packaging is wrong. I’ve perfected a homemade version using walnut oil, a fresh sprig of rosemary, plenty of sea salt, pepper, herbs and a good balsamic vinegar. To store it I bought a hand-painted glass cruet that looks much nicer on the table than the Newman bottle.

I realize Ed was not the one who had the goal to cut out a large amount of plastic use. It was me alone. He has been not only a good sport but a big help in trying to reach my 10 pound less plastic goal, but he can not pass down the condiment aisle without picking up his beloved tart Catalina dressing. I found a clone recipe I will try tonight. If successful our salads will be plastic free.

My tiny garden with critter discouraging devices yields a few bites for each day.

For June, I guestimate 15 oz. of plastic was intentionally left in the store.

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