We deal with a lot of harvests here at Happy Acres that need to be refrigerated, especially leafy greens. Up until now we have been using a mix of plastic bags and containers to hold our produce. They are supposedly food safe, but we have been trying to move away from plastic for some time now.
My wife recently dusted off her sewing machine and made us some fabric food bags, based on an idea she got from Lynn over yonder at Wood Ridge. These bags are being tested in the kitchen now, for a variety of things.
Mei Qing pac choi and Yukina Savoy
I harvested some pac choi and Yukina Savoy from the greenhouse this week. They wound up eventually in some Turkey Miso soup I made. But after the harvest, they hung out for a while in a cloth bag in the refrigerator.
greens in cloth bag
My wife made this bag with a draw string, so it can be closed up tightly. That is handy when you want to keep the contents from falling out, or to help keep the moisture in!
bag with draw string
We’ve also used the bags for bread, like this Cracked Wheat boule I baked last week. The bags are going to get a lot of use when the harvests start coming on hot and heavy. I think she is going to need to make us several more!
cloth bags are also good for bread
As for the greens, they wound up in a Turkey Miso soup I made, using some of our leftover heritage turkey from Christmas. We had frozen the leftover meat along with some stock we made from the carcass. I added the greens at the last minute, right before serving. It made for a tasty soup!
Turkey Miso Soup with greens
For more gardeners’ harvests, visit Daphne’s Dandelions and check out Harvest Mondays.
I really need to make some of those bags. I just hate using plastic! Do the greens stay crisp?
Yummy soup!!
The pac choi that I didn’t use is doing well after 3 days. I am hoping to test kale soon. I don’t know how well lettuce and salad greens will do. They might be better off in plastic
I am curious how the greens hold up in the cloth bags? It is a great idea and I would love to learn more about how they work for you. The pac choi is absolutely beautiful! 😀
I will do updates on our tests with the bags. We are keeping the ones with veggies in the crisper drawer, and so far they are doing fine.
Those bags is just what I need! Thank you! I will be making few of them today.
It will be interesting to see how this turns out for you. Reminds me of when my MIL made cloth Christmas gift bags. Ha, they are still get used by all of us and passed around!
I got my firs Pak Choi seeds that I will be planting this year. We tried it for the first time recently at the request of my 4 yr old from watching the cartoon Kai Lan…ha ha! Needless to say the adults liked it and the children didn’t! But we’re still going to grow some, maybe it’ll grow on them!
Pac choi is great in a smoothie too!
I love the cloth bags! They have the added bonus of looking good too. The soup looks delicious, miso sounds like a wonderful addition to it, gonna have to try that…
I added about a tbsp of miso at the very end, plus a splash of sesame oil, and it gave the soup a nice flavor.
Great way to use it, in the soup! We nearly always have dried seaweed on hand, but when you’ve got fresh greens it would seem like a no-brainer!
I remember when Lynn wrote that post and what a great idea I thought it was…unfortunately we forgot about it. I will have to try this as well, especially since we never seem to have enough plastic bags around and these cloth ones could so easily be washed and re-used.
I sort of forgot about it too, but I guess my wife didn’t. She plans on making some new pot holders as well. I can see a lot of use out of the bags.
I’m curious to see how these bags will work out for you over time. They look simple to make, even for a sewing-machine-challenged individual such as myself! 😛
What an interesting concept. I would think that things would dry out in porous cloth, but they sure would be easy to wash and use over. Beautiful loaf of bread and lovely greens, especially for January. Everyone else is putting me to shame, growing greens in the middle of winter in the north. Well, I posted some nice “day a the beach” photos on my blog today, plus some photos of lemons that I harvested. At least I’m getting something. And my hens are laying again too so we have eggs.
Dang I wish I didn’t live in this idiotic town. I’d love to have a few hens. Must see about getting the anti-poultry ordinance changed.
Most things don’t stay long enough in my fridge to get dehydrated . . . nor does the bread last long enough to get stale. I think those bags are brilliant. I need some.
Those greens look wonderful. And so does the soup. I have chicken soup in my fridge right now and it is almost lunch time.
Oooh, I absolutely love this cloth idea, especially for the bread!