Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Debbie Meyer Green Bags - 5 Stars

Unpaid Product Endorsement

Since we're all trying to get back to more balanced eating and that generally means fitting in more salads, I thought it would be a good time for this review.

See this lettuce? Looks pretty fresh doesn't it? Would you believe it's been in the fridge for over 2 weeks?


And this romaine lettuce was going on its 4th week when I took this picture.


Hard to believe isn't it? Well, on my honor, it's absolutely true. And, it's all because of these little green bags. (By the way, unlike this picture here I have learned and I recommend removing the cores before storing lettuce and celery and such, because the cores will go bad first - so just pop them off before storing.)


I love the green boxes too. I use these for other salad veggies, and the big one for our whole grain bread. It really keeps the bread fresh for alot longer. They are a little more expensive than the bags, but I wanted to give them a try.


But the bags are much less expensive and take up less space ... AND, they work!


Now, I realize that these bags get some mixed reviews across the internet, but I absolutely LOVE them and I think that they are great! I truly believe that the disappointment some people experience with them comes out of extremely high expectations. C'mon people, they are just bags! And I think like with anything, it really is more of a common sense issue with how you use them and what you use them on. Some types of produce that is more moisture-laden, or that produce strong vapors, just aren't going to keep as well as other, more dry produce does.

Right off the bat I'm gonna tell you this. That picture of the bananas on the front of the package? Um, for me at least ... not so much. I tried bananas and oh yuck. While it did keep them from mottling and turning brown as fast, it also created moisture in the bag constantly and a strong and unpleasant musky odor that was not at all appetizing. Yuck. I personally just think that bananas create too many gases. So in my humble little ole opinion, forget green baggin' the bananas. Just keep them on the countertop and what you don't use up, make into
banana bread or cake or something.

But lettuce? It does a fantastic job! I like to keep a couple of different lettuces in the house - usually whole romaine leaves and a couple of bags of spring mixes - when I'm eating salads often. But as life goes, I'd end up not using it as fast as I intended and I would end up throwing much of it out onto the compost pile. And I HATE wasting food, but as you see, the bags do a great job of keeping lettuce fresh for a long time and I'm not throwing lettuce out anymore.

Right before our last cold snap, my bell pepper plants were still producing peppers. The night we were expected to have a freeze, I went out and picked all the peppers off the vine, and filled one of these large green bags. That bag sat on my counter for weeks before I used them all up.

Celery is another one. It just seems to go limp so fast. And green onion? Gets slimy fast. Well, the green bags keep them both fresh in your fridge for a lot longer. Grapes, mushrooms and yes, even strawberries! The bags and boxes have worked fantastic for all of those.

Right before that last freeze we had, I also had a bunch of tomato plants that were full of green fruit, so while they weren't fully developed, I also picked those and brought them in and bagged them. The bags held them for a pretty long while (I didn't track it, sorry), couple weeks I'd say, while they were green, but once they begin to ripen and turn red if I didn't remove them, they would over-ripen and rot in the bag. I think tomatoes produce a lot of moisture too. I found the same thing with cucumbers - while the bags will hold them for awhile, it won't keep them as long as other veggies.

So it'd say be mindful of the moisture content with certain foods because that will interfere with the process! You will want to put items in the bags very dry, and only wash them as you use them, but do keep in mind that the stores spray the produce, so sometimes they'll be some moisture hidden in the folds of the produce. If you see condensation build up on the inside of the bag, take the produce out, put it into a new bag and wash and dry the other bag. One of the great things about these bags is that you can reuse them several times, and I certainly do!

So, give
Debbie Meyer Green Bags a try! I think you'll find them a great money saver when it comes to produce!



~

2 comments:

  1. ooh, thanks for that review! I've been hesitant to try them because of all the mixed reviews they get. but I'm sick of throwing away food that goes bad! (like our spinach, grapes and strawberries, no matter how fast we try to eat it, within about 2 days they've gone bad)

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  2. I was hesitant to try them at first too but figured with what I kept throwing away in food it would be worth giving them a try. I'm glad I did - I mean look at that lettuce! The green boxes are pretty expensive and they take up more room, but I was VERY surprised how well they kept mushrooms and strawberries especially!

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