So Just How Clean Is Your Organic Girl Lettuce?

I’ve never been a big fan of lettuce in a bag–especially those cellophane bags of sad, brown iceberg lettuce with a few shavings of carrot thrown in for good measure. You could practically see the germs floating around in the scummy brown water that always seemed to accumulate in the bottom of the bag.

I remember being at more than one gathering when the hostess pulled a similar bag out of the fridge, opened it and poured it right into a salad bowl.

No thank you.

But recently, I’ve been lured in by the Organic Girl brand sold at Whole Foods.

The products are touted as being triple-washed. And, as their website states:

Fabulous–you’ve found ! these are no ordinary greens. these are organicgirl® good clean greens. introducing the of organic produce, grown in harmony with the earth and with a keen eye for superior quality. each leaf is with love from mother earth, and packed in a clamshell . we have it on good authority that is an , and we’re confident that you’ll agree – mother always knows best.

Old habits die hard, and the first time I bought these greens I put them in my trusted salad spinner/washer. What washed out was pure dirt–almost enough to make mud pies from.

Now don’t get me wrong–I know full well that lettuce grows in the dirt. When I buy greens from my local farmer’s market, there’s always dirt attached. No biggie.

But when something purports to be clean, there shouldn’t be that much dirt attached. If their triple-washing leaves this much dirt behind, it makes you wonder about the rest of their process.

Nevertheless, I tried again with a different mixture–a lettuce/spinach blend. Once again I washed it myself. Only this time, instead of dirt, there were soap suds in the bottom of my washing bowl.

Frankly, I’d rather see dirt than suds of an unknown origin.

After two or three rinses, the suds went away.

But not before I learned a lesson–no more “prewashed” greens.

I’ll save the money and wash my lettuce myself.