How to Keep Lettuce and Peas Fresh with Paper Towels

Use paper towels to keep your lettuce leaves and sugar snap peas fresh for weeks. The paper towels help remove moisture that can make your vegetables go bad.  

Right now we are picking pounds of lettuce and sugar snap peas.  Just this weekend we picked 10 pounds (!!) of lettuce and 5 pounds (!!) of sugar snap peas.  We usually don’t pick this much lettuce at once, but the heat hit and we know it’s going to turn bitter if we keep it in the garden so we’d rather pick it now.   Over the past few years I’ve spent lots of time experimenting trying to keep our vegetables fresh for as long as possible as there’s nothing sadder to a gardener then seeing their plants go to waste.  You might have remembered last summer’s tip on how to keep your lettuce fresh for a month with aluminum foil? Yup, works great!    And now I’m back with more fresh tips, this time for lettuce leaves and sugar snap peas.  All you need is your vegetables, paper towels and a produce bag.  

How to Keep Lettuce Leaves Fresh

Gather up your lettuce leaves.   You don’t want to wash it beforehand, this is going to keep it fresher longer. You’ll wash the lettuce when you want to use it.  Grab your roll of Viva paper towels too.

It’s important to use good quality paper towels for this because you want a cloth-like paper towel that’s going to absorb all the extra moisture.  I’ve been a fan of Viva for years and it’s the only brand we use in our home.   We use lots of paper towels in the kitchen and in the garden and I like that only a sheet or two does the job due to Viva’s strength.  Viva Towels have a signature soft and smooth texture, like an undershirt cloth.  I like that I can use them from jobs ranging from delicate subjects (like a countertop, or our cats face!) as well as for hard jobs like scrubbing up dirt from the garden.

Gather your lettuce, paper towels and a produce bag.  You want to use a light plastic bag to store your lettuce in.  If you’re ever in the grocery store shopping for vegetables, grab a extra bag so you can use it for your lettuce.  I tend to reuse these bags too.

Rip off a piece of paper towel that is long enough to completely wrap around your lettuce.

And then roll up the lettuce in the towel.

See, all rolled up…

Now stick the lettuce in your bag, keeping the bag top loose.  You don’t want to use a bag that you’ll seal shut.   Now put it in your refrigerator (preferably in the crisper drawer) and use as you need it.  Just make sure to wash before using.  

This is what the lettuce looked like after 3 weeks!

I wish you could reach through the screen and feel how crisp the leaves still are!

I wanted to show you a before and after of the Viva paper towels to so you can see how much moisture the towels absorb while in the refrigerator.
The top towel is the one that’s been in the fridge with the lettuce for a few weeks. The bottom is a brand new paper towel.  You might not think there’s moisture in your refrigerator out to get your vegetables, but it’s there, and these paper towels help protect your veggies.

How to Keep Sugar Snap Peas Fresh

Sugar Snap peas are one of our favorite vegetables from the garden.  They make a delicious dinner as well as a perfect afternoon snack.  The peas are best when they are crisp so it’s important that we keep them fresh until we’re ready to use them.

Grab your sugar snap peas and place in a bag. I use a stronger bag for the peas because they are heavier than lettuce and we store pounds of peas at once!

Add paper towels to go on both sides of the pea, so that when looking in the bag you only see paper towels.  

Place your bag of pea in the refrigerator, making sure not to zip it close.  You want to keep it semi opened.

Whenever you need peas, reach into the bag and enjoy!

 

Hope you enjoyed these tips to keep your vegetables fresh!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.