Here’s how some of our members deal with the bug problem. Remember, no matter what method you choose, always store your greens only when thoroughly dry.

NOTE: ‘The Green Bags can be found at Target, Walmart, Bed n Bath, Henry’s, Jimbos, probably most major health food stores and online.

1. We’ve used this method with excellent results for the last 2 years for
all our veggies, fruits and herbs. It saves us time and everything
always stays fresh much longer than usual, especially the lettuces.
Our lettuce stays fresh for 7-10 days and is always ready to use. No
more passing up a salad since the lettuce still needs to be washed. It
works great on berries, grapes, etc. This method kills a lot of hidden
bacteria and also kills aphids and pests almost immediately.

As soon as you bring your fresh veggies/lettuce/fruits/etc home:
Fill the sink with enough to cover your produce with:
1 part plain distilled vinegar
4-6 parts cold water
Let soak 3-5 minutes, gently agitate a few times
Rinse well with running water
Spin dry in salad spinner or drain larger veggies (asparagus, potatoes)
Air dry 1 hour
Place loosely in produce bags (Hefty, Zip-Loc, Green Bag, etc)
Refrigerate
Ready To Go!

You may need to make a fresh batch of the vinegar/water mix as needed
if the mix becomes very dirty or buggy. I usually use 2 batches for
each regular size CSA box, the second batch is for the leafy greens/
lettuces.

Hint: buy your vinegar in the 1 gallon size to have plenty on hand. It
costs ~$1.79 per gallon.

2. Here’s a trick that has been found to work pretty well. Make a dip of 1:2 cups of vinegar to ice water. Soak the item in this solution in a bowl and it will stun them and get them off right quick. Do the vinegar-ice water first, then a quick cold water rinse, and then it’s a spin in the salad spinner.

3. For me, I use the recipe that I got from the book “Green Housekeeping” by Ellen Sandbeck. I first rinse the veggies in vinegar and then in hydrogen peroxide to take the vinegar away from the veggies. This way when the hydrogen peroxide binds with the vinegar it takes away the vinegar by bonding to it and then releases just water and oxygen in the process. That way, my veggies don’t smell of vinegar and aren’t hurt by the acidity of it either.

4. When I get home w/ my box, I group all of it especially the leafy ones on the counter to dry for an hour or so because I store mine in green bags and that requires dry contents for effectiveness. While they are drying, a critter or two may crawl out to see what’s going on and, of course, I then arrest it and flush it. I find that using the lettuce early in the week keeps the culprits from chewing away even though they’re refrigerated. They don’t die in the cold, ha ha!

The tougher greens don’t have the problem, I can report that!

So, if one is too lazy to get out the vinegar, just take a look around the lettuces for a green worm. I usually have very few which certainly speaks to how much damage one darn bug does! ha ha! I am a believer in submerging the greens and visually checking, not just running water over them.