Author: Preserving lettuce is easy with this simple trick. Fresh from the store or the garden, this method keeps lettuce fresh for up to 5 weeks!
Trying to eat well is hard enough, trying to eat well on a budget can seem nearly impossible at times! But, with a few tricks and a little focus, you can eat great food on a tiny budget!
One of the ways we do that is to make sure that none of our food is going to waste either by going bad before we get to it, or by having a fridge so full that we forget about something. Of course, we keep our menu plans tight and stick to them rigidly. But in addition to that, we also make sure that we are storing our foods properly.
This goes for food we purchased at the store and food we grew ourselves! There’s nothing I hate more when trying to budget than seeing food spoil due to improper storage techniques… and lettuce is one of the worst offenders!
How to Store Lettuce
If you are growing your own lettuce, you can keep it in the ground for fresh lettuce everyday. However, once the weather gets too hot the lettuce will start to bolt and then you have to figure out a way to keep it fresh inside!
This is the very best method I’ve found for keeping lettuce crisp and green for long periods of time – whether from the garden or the grocery store!
Tip: If you’re using this tip on store bought lettuce, make sure the lettuce shows no signs of wilting when you buy it!
My beautiful lettuce from the garden this year, about to be picked because the weather was getting too darn hot!
>> Find out how we grew 1500 pounds of food with zero weeding or watering!
So after years of trying everything I finally discovered the Queen Mother of all lettuce tips! And BOY do I wish I could take credit for this. I really really do! But I stumbled upon this trick because I got a little lazy one day.
Anyway, I bought this lettuce, cut the end off and shoved it unwashed into a Ziploc back and put it in the bottom drawer of my fridge. That’s the lazy bit there; I usually wash it before putting it in the bag to make prep easier as the week goes on.
We had our sandwiches and salads that week and I honestly forgot about the remaining lettuce.
Don’t judge me here…
But it was WEEKS later that I remembered it and went to throw it out before it liquefied all over my drawers.
Much to my surprise I opened the drawer to find the lettuce completely in tact! We used the rest over the course of the next week and it never did go bad! So 5 full weeks after I put it in the bag it was still perfect!
I really thought it was a fluke, so I tried it several more times and it worked every time! Ok, here’s the secret to keeping lettuce fresh for over a month (which you may have already figured out)…
DON’T WASH THE LETTUCE.
That’s it. Cut the end off, put it in a bag and wash each leaf right before you need it. No more wasted money on putrefied lettuce!
This is information you need if you don’t use much lettuce each week, or you just found a great deal and want to stock up, or perhaps you are fighting the heat and need to get your hard earned heads of lettuce out of the ground!
Whatever the reason, this tip is an absolute must when it comes to keeping your lettuce fresh!
I only buy the artisan lettuce that comes in a rigid, but lightweight plastic container. When I get it home, I put fresh water in the bottom and leave the stem ends in that water. Every 3 or 4 days, I change the water and the lettuce NEVER goes bad. I love my lettuce and it is far too expensive to waste it.
Great tip Marilyn! You’re right, way too expensive to waste!
Fantastic! Does this work for all kinds of lettuce?
Hi Rohini, I’ve found that it works for romaine, iceberg, and green leaf lettuces! Thanks for stopping by!
I grow leaf lettuce in my garden. When I pick it, I bring it in and wash it in several changes of water. Then I run a clean sink full of cold water and let it soak for several hours. Then I drain it and lay it one towels to drip for several more hours. Then, using a dry towel, I put a couple of handfuls of lettuce in the center and spin it around until it is pretty dry. I recommend doing this outside, as it can make quite a mess! (learned from experience!) Then I put 2 layers of paper towels in a large Ziploc and add a layer of lettuce. I repeat with layer of towels and lettuce ending with paper towels on the top. Like another reader said, if the towels get too wet, change them. This way my lettuce lasts at least a month in the fridge.
Love your website!
Hi Linda! Thanks for that tip! We are growing lettuce right now so I look forward to trying it!
I used to do lettuce this way and only got about 2 weeks out of this method, but I probably wasn’t getting them dry enough. I have been known to be a bit impatient ;-) Thanks for your comment and I hope to see you again soon!