Every single week, I have noticed I am throwing away money. Not literally of coarse, but when I am forced to throw out fruits and veggies that have gone bad before I got the chance to eat them all. Its very frustrating.
Whats worse, is going grocery shopping thinking I still have celery, carrots, and other good stuff at home, so I go home without re purchasing new for that week, only to go home and realize that I should have bought more. What I thought was still good, was actually bad… I guess I could have just done inventory before going shopping, but wouldn’t it just be easier if all my fruits and veggies were still fresh? Wouldn’t that fix my problem and save me a bunch of money?
Well, turns out there is a product for that! The Debbie Meyer Greenbags are another one of my “gotta have it” food/ kitchen products.
I’m almost certain all of you readers out there have at least one food that comes to mind as you are reading this…
Aren’t bananas just the worst?! Ours are getting spots in as little as 3 days. Once mine get spots, I just plain wont eat them.
So, as usual we took a trip to our nearest Bed Bath and Beyond, and I picked up some Greenbags. I was able to test and compare the Greenbags against the usual grocery store clear produce bags. I tested cauliflower, celery, bananas, and carrots.
My results:
Celery: the celery lasted 8 days in the Greenbags, it was still nice and green in color, it was fresh, crisp, and when bent, it snapped into a clean break. The celery in the clear produce bag was pale in color, it was rubbery, wilted, and when I tried to snap/ bend it, it would not break. It bent at a 45 degree angle with no breakage or damage…
Bananas: The un Greenbagged bananas started getting spots at about day 4, while the Greenbagged bananas looked as fresh as brand new. By day 8, the unbagged bananas were just covered with spots and bruises, and pretty much only good if I was planning on making banana bread. The Greenbagged bananas still had little to no spots, and were still perfectly fresh.
Cauliflower: After 8 days, the cauliflower in the clear store produce bag was covered in brown spots, a few black spots, and the leaves were extremely rubbery and wilted much like the celery. The Greenbagged cauliflower had maybe one or two brown spots and when I looked at the leaves, they were still fresh and crisp like the Greenbagged celery.
Carrots: After 15 days the carrots left in their original bagging were rubbery and bendy, and the Greenbagged carrots were still as fresh as they were when I bought them.
These Greenbags are simply amazing and I have found that they pay for themselves in about a couple weeks time. On average I was throwing away about $10 in produce every two weeks. They are easily affordable at only $10 per box, and you can get nearly 200 uses from one box. If you use about one bag per week, per fruit or veggie, that’s nearly 10 weeks of usage before you will have to buy more. This is an awesome product and I recommend them to anyone who loves their produce to stay fresh and anyone who loves to save money. I will definitely continue to buy these and I expect I will be gifting out more of them this coming Christmas.
How they work:
They absorb and remove natural ethylene gases that most fruits, veggies and flowers release during the natural ripening process after harvest. Produce exposure to these gases speed up and accelerate the aging process and cause deterioration.
Cauliflower Day 1
Cauliflower Day 8
Celery Day 1
Celery Day 8 ( greenbagged)
Celery Day 8 ( greenbagged)- notice the color
Celery Day 8 (un greenbagged)
Banana Day 1
Banana Day 4
Banana Day 7
Banana Day 9
Marisa – glad the green bags worked for you but I feel cheated. After watching all the infomercials I bought some but the shape is so narrow that a lot of produce like large apples won't fit into the opening. Also, I hoped that using them for bananas would keep fruit flies out of my kitchen and help them last longer, but they make the fruit sweat – it actually gets wet.
By the way, you can revive some of your limp celery and other produce but putting it in ice water or in some water and then into the fridge for awhile.
thanks for the tip! sorry it didnt work out as well for you. sometimes im sure it depends on where you live and climate. it doesnt usually get super hot in the Seattle area, so i didnt really have those problems