A few weeks ago, I embarked on an exciting journey that would have me comparing the freshness of veggies stored in regular plastic bags vs. Clearly Fresh Bags, which promise to keep produce fresher for up to 50% longer than traditional methods. Well, it’s been an intense, emotionally harrowing journey, and now I’m prepared to show you the final results. I didn’t make a movie this time because I was lazy, but it’s really too bad because I had some very serious reactions to what I discovered in my crisper.
Nevertheless, with the help of my dear friend Sly, we inspected each bag and passed final judgment on the state of the produce. Pictures after the jump…
Here I am futzing with the bags. I should note that we took these photos in the middle of our recent Quaff experience; so we were a little tipsy.
First up, we take on the Clearly Fresh Bags. The mint looks pretty solid, especially considering it’s two and a half weeks old at this point (eighteen days technically). A little dark and scary at the bottom, but not totally useless.
The zucchini are definitely not usable. Gross.
We don’t take the romaine out of the bag. It’s clearly gone bad. But again, it’s not horrifically bad.
Shockingly, the scallions are pretty good. Normally these things wilt on me within three days.
Considering this basil is eighteen days old, it looks tremendous.
Here comes the produce in the regular bags. I’m cringing because I’ve just grabbed the zucchini bag and can feel how mushy they are.
Me expressing how gross the zucchini felt.
Time to look at the produce, which stinks by the way.
The basil: shockingly not bad. I must have purchased the world’s sturdiest basil. Nevertheless, it is significantly more wilted than the basil in the Clearly Fresh Bags.
The scallions are also in surprisingly OK condition. Again, not as good as the Clearly Fresh Bags.
As bad as the other lettuce looked, this one was far worse. Yucky.
Like the other mint, this stuff is in pretty good shape. It did have more black leaves though.
Lastly, the zucchini. Ewwwwwwwww. This was totally nasty. We both were repulsed. And it was on this note that I decided to end the experiment. No question people: the Fresh Bags work.
Advantage: Clearly Fresh Bags.
In other news, I think my preserved lemons have early signs of mold. Photo to come.
You know if you make sure that the food items are dry before putting them into the bags, they will last longer (I learned the hard way). I can see a lot of moisture (or is that Mouisture? ala Rachel) inside of your green bags.
I would think the moisture on the bag at this point in the game comes from the dehydration of the vegtable itself. kind of like a body of water evaporating into the atmosphere only to become clouds and rain.. falling to earth into the pond only to start the cycle one again. HA! Or a terrarium.
And I remember the last lemon failure. How can this keep happening?
This summer I learned and canned my own Peach Jam and my own SALSA.
I highly recommend you trying canning your own Salsa.. I can give you pointers and let your imagination run with it.
Keep your green onions in a glass (about 1″ to 1 1/2″ deep) of water and they’ll stay good for a while. If you just use the green parts and leave about 2″ of the root end your onions will resprout more greens for you to use! Change the water once or twice a week and you will be surprised at how well they keep and/or regenerate!
Flower child, I believe Ben tried that once. And it does work.
Oh! That’s great!
OHmygod
when it says it will keep things fresher for 50% longer, i’m pretty sure they mean 6 days instead of 4.
NOT EIGHTEEN!
If you wash produce and put them in a paper sack or wrap them in paper towels they keep for a really long time, I don’t know how long exactly but I have never thrown anything out after keeping veg. in paper.