How to keep vegetables fresh for the rabbits

[ilovetoeatchocolate]

Hello,

Okay this may seem like a really stupid question. More vegetables have been coming into the house then ever since we have gotten the three rabbits. Now I love veggies so they help me eat them or vice versa. Normally when a vegetable or parsley or cilantro for that matter, gets droopy it is not a big deal as it is just me eating it. If it is a little on the not fresh side I don't mind. But you are supposed to be feeding fresh veggies to rabbits and you have to be very careful of things like mold. So I am not comfortable feeding them the veggies that are droopy. Somtimes I will buy cilantro and parsley and it will even change color, to yellow in two days. Which bothers me since I spent the money on it. So what are some tips on how to keep the vegetables fresh, not droopy and nice and green, not yellow? Do any of you guys have issues with this? I buy so much vegetables for the rabbits that my fridge is overflowing! LOL! Maybe we should get another fridge for the veggies! They should sell something like that in the store! You know those little mini wine fridges with the clear glass door? They should make a veggie fridge!

Oh and I even tried to do what the organic food store does for the parsley and cilantro, keeping the stems in a bucket of water in the cooler. That made it get droopy even more fast! I opened the fridge to the pasley having brown stems and it drooping over the glass.

Shannon

 

[werecatrising]

I use the evert fresh bags.

 

[ilovetoeatchocolate]

What are those?

 

[werecatrising]

http://www.evertfresh.com/

 

[ilovetoeatchocolate]

That is so cool! And I have seen those in my organic food store. I am going to go get them. Thank you!

Anyone else have any other tips incase the bags cannot be found for a bit?

Shannon

 

[Maureen Las]

You need to buy a couple large tupperware containers.

The lettuce, kale, parsley, and most veggies must be washed throughly. I mean I really wash it well because i don't buy organic.

Then take small cheap washclothes or dish clothes (not paper towels) and after shaking off the veggies store in the tupperware containers with the cloths and the tops on the containers. in the fridge/ it will be crisp amd last a long time

The evil cilantro I have not quite figured out yet. It makes it deriorate faster if you wash it all at once before you use it so I would store it in bunches unwashed in another tupperware container. Take the zip ties off because it will deteriorate when it is pulled together. I wash each bunch before I use it and end up rinsing it in cold water and drying it by wrapping it with cloth not paper.

I really don't have the cilantro down yet. it's always going bad anyway.

 

[BethM]

I use a couple big "Lock & Lock" containers. The ones with the silicone seal, and flaps that fold down to keep the lids on tight. I got a couple big ones with drainage trays. I have two 19cup ones, one each for cilantro and parsley; each will hold 2-4 bundles. I also have a 23cup one, which will hold about 2 heads of leaf lettuce.

I wash everything first, shake it off, and then put it in the containers. The tight seals keep the veggies fresh a lot longer than just keeping it in the supermarket package.
I'll try to post some photos tonight.

 

[Luvmyzoocrew]

my vegies are usually not around long enough,lol. But i have heard that with Romaine lettuce, and things like parsley and cilantro, you dampen a paper towel and wrap it around them and put it in the fridge and it keeps them fresher. I have tried it and i thought it had worked

 

[Leaf]

I honestly live close enough to enough shops that I can buy fresh a few times a week without going out of my way at all. That keeps my storage space minimal, the veggies as fresh as possible and my rabbit crew as happy as clams.

 

[mouse_chalk]

At the moment we just store all ours in the bags they come in, or in sandwich bags to try and keep them fresh, but it is a struggle... It doesn't help that Steve makes the majority of the bunny meals and he always puts the herbs/lettuce (i.e. the most delicate stuff) to the back of the fridge on the shelf instead of in the salad crisper drawer....:X MEN!

Our problem is worse at the moment as our fridge is bust and has taken to freezing everything in sight, so our veggies are either freezing, or if we turn the temperature down to stop the freezing, things like the butter etc get too warm.... :X

When I get my redundancy we're going to get one of those big double fridge/freezers I hope, so we'll have tons of room for veg. And then we're going to buy tupperware containers and store the lettuce and herbs in.....

Ooooh I can hardly wait lol! :biggrin2:

 

[FuzzyLove]

I was using those everfresh bags until some pieces of lettuce got yucky and it was hard washing them out. I just got this container and it has drain holes on the bottom (with a lid on the bottom to collect water) and air holes on the side. I got it from the Container Store (I'm not seeing it online) but I'm sure you can find something similar. This product works great because I can wash off my veggies and not worry about it going bad because the moisture has no place to go. Good luck!

 

[FuzzyLove]

Here, I found it online (www.containerstore.com) it's called the Lettuce & Produce Keeper for $14.99 - but I feel its worth the money.

Fuzzy Love

 

[Mom of Joy and Love]

We have had great success keeping most greens fresh for weeks.
We remove each green from the bag in came in; wrap it tightly in a clean, white towel; place it back in its bag sealing out all the air.
When needed we remove the amount needed from the unwrapped towel and rewrap and seal the greens in the bag.
Greens are washed directly before use.
Sometimes we will make up salads for bunnies a couple of days in advance. For each salad the greens are prepared for eating; placed in salad spinner's strainer and washed thoroughly; spun in salad spinner to remove excess moisture; rolled up inside a clean, white towel; placed in an air tight container and stored in the refrigerator.
The only green we've had problems with are dandelions.

 

[Pet_Bunny]

Mom of Joy and Love wrote:

We remove each green from the bag in came in; wrap it tightly in a clean, white towel;

The only green we've had problems with are dandelions.

Is that a white paper towel?

Dandelions are so hardily from our back yard. I picked some, washed them and left them in the frig in plastic bags. Days later, the dandelions were still growing inside the plastic bags.

 

[mouse_chalk]

It's not fair, we don't have dandelions in our garden! :X There were about 3 plants in our front garden but I picked them all on Friday night to try and get Snowy to eat them.... Yes, I was out there at around 2am in my slippers, using my phone as a light to find them! :shock:

I've noticed that 2 doors down, our neighbours have their front garden COVERED in them as they never cut the grass- it's hard to describe it but our gardens all kind of run into each other with no fences between as we live on a small close... I'm soooo tempted to go out there and pick them at night! h34r2

 

[Mom of Joy and Love]

It's a cheap, white, terrycloth towel about the size of a hand towel. That way it can be washed and reused and doesn't get wet like a paper towel. Plus we rinse out and recycle the bags the greens come in.

 

[slavetoabunny]

mouse_chalk wrote:

I'm soooo tempted to go out there and pick them at night! h34r2

LOL, I can really see you doing this.

 

[Pet_Bunny]

Mom of Joy and Love wrote:

It's a terrycloth towel about the size of a hand towel.

Thanks Mom of Joy and Love. I'll have to give it a try.

 

[honeyb]

I recycle the bags my cereal comes in...the ~waxed paper bags in the Cheerios box seem to keep veggies fresh longer.

 

[BethM]

Here are a couple photos of the containers I use to keep my veggies fresh.

The three stacked together fit on the bottom shelf of my fridge. (Please excuse the mess in there!!) They take up about a third of the shelf. The big one (23cups) holds lettuce, it will fit about 2 medium heads of leaf lettuce. The smaller ones (19 cups) hold parsley and cilantro. Each will fit about 2-4 bundles, depending on size.

Here's a photo of one of the containers open. Each one has a drainage tray at the bottom that helps keep the veg up out of any water that drains out.

The parsley in here is about 5? days old, I think. When I had just the 2 bunnies, the veg would last about a week, and stay relatively fresh for the entire time, as long as it was fresh going in.

The main salad around here is parsley, cilantro, and lettuce, but I will change things up every couple weeks, I'll get one head of lettuce and a bundle of kale or dandelions, or I'll add a few little carrot or brocolli stem pieces or some brussels sprouts.