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There is obviously a better way to do this. There are actually probably many, many better ways to do this. I'm picking lettuces, spinach and other salad greens in the field, submerging them immediately in cold well water in big plastic tubs, hauling the tubs in the trailer to the back room of the garage, shifting the greens into different tubs of water a few times and sort of swishing them around gently. I still, after about four such water changes, spent a good two hours tonight rinsing dirt off of the leaves.
I suppose there's two area I can improve, and the first is the field conditions. Would a straw mulch help? I think where I got into trouble was when I harvested every second head last week, and the soil that came up with the roots sprinkled over the adjacent heads, which I harvested tonight. Because last week's weren't as gritty.
I didn't weigh the lettuce but what I cleaned filled six pillowcases. The system I'm using has worked well for two-pillowcase summer parties, but not for this quantity.
Would plastic coolers with bottom drains be better for rinsing? When I have the greens in tubs of cold water in the trailer, should I just engage the mower deck and cut some grass and let the tubs bounce around a bit before unloading in the garage? I'm not foolish enough to look at this solely in terms of hourly return financially, but I'm not foolish enough to ignore that aspect either, and doing this the way I did tonight doesn't seem profitable.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
katie
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