Moving to California has made me much more aware of water - and when I'm wasting it - than ever before. One biggie is the sink-full of water that I use to wash my salad greens every week. I've finally hit on a win-win solution.
Instead of washing my greens directly in the sink as I usually do, I have started using my biggest mixing bowl. Sometimes I need to do multiple batches if I have a lot of greens, but for the most part, this is just as effective as before.
When I'm done, I carry the bowl of gritty water outside and use it to water my plants. That way the water does double duty both cleaning the greens and watering the garden.
I should also clarify that usually buy organic greens from the farmers market and don't use any soap when washing them. I just swish them in water to dislodge any dirt (or insect hitchhikers) and let the dirt sink to the bottom of the bowl. I figure the little extra dirt is fine for the garden and probably better overall than letting it go down the drain.
Related: How Dorie Greenspan Keeps Her Salad Greens Fresh
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uhh... use a salad spinner?
Perfectly sensible and practical. Those without outdoor space could water houseplants with the used water.
I do the same thing except use TJ's veggie wash and use a salad spinner to get every last drop out.
Yay!
I like to keep the watering can for houseplants next to the sink. When I rinse salad sprouts and suchlike, the water goes in there, and from there to my seedlings and houseplants and the pots right outside the door.
And I caught my husband doing it last week even though I never said anything to him about it. <3
It's a simple tiny thing that makes me happy. I live on the shores of a great lake, so I want to protect it. I am daily thankful that I have easy access to potable water.
Greywater reuse can sound scary and complicated, but it doesn't need to be. Thanks!
I have been doing this for a while, ever since I moved into an older home with bad plumbing. It takes three minutes for the water to get hot when I use the kitchen sink, so this way I don't feel guilty about wasting it.
I've never washed my greens in the sink. I've always used a large mixing bowl. However, if you can figure out the best way to soak a rommertopf without wasting water, I will be forever indebted to you.
It takes a while for our water to heat up as well, so any time I'm doing dishes, I run the water into a large enamel pot/bucket I have and use that water to rinse dishes, water plants, wash lettuce... anything I can use that extra water for, I do. I really hate wasting it.
A couple of years ago I made an outdoor sink from an old tin tub, shelf brackets, and a bar sink drain. A spring loaded clamp holds the hose sprayer above it and I keep a bucket under the drain. I use it for veggies, hand tools, flower pots, and anything that's safe for the garden. In the winter we save the water from our salad spinner for the houseplants.
I'm just glad we aren't in a bad drought like New Mexico right now. Some of my friends there can only use gray water in their gardens because of watering restrictions. They hook up hoses to their washing machine drain and keep buckets in the shower to catch the water.
@Eelie, your comment doesn't make sense. Some greens (esp. from the farmers market) come home very gritty and sandy and have to be soaked in a bowl of water--you can't just rinse them off and spin them dry.
Katlian, what a brilliant idea! Even with all the rains the SF Bay area has had lately, I still can't bring myself to waste water from the tap.
This is exactly why I grow my herbs in barrels just outside the kitchen door. I use a salad spinner--it is really useful because you can lift the basket out and see how much grit remains in the bottom after each soaking. It usually takes at least three washes for anything from by garden to be declared grit free.
@breezyslp
To me your comment doesn't make sense. Why can't you soak your salad in a salad spinner? A salad spinner basically is a big plastic bowl with a colander bowl inside, so you soak your salad, then take the colander out of the plastic bowl, take the plastic bowl outside and water your plants, take it inside, put the colander with the salad inside, spin it. So easy, we've done that for years. If the salad is really dirty, we will repeat the process.
I think you think a salad spinner is basically only a colander, which it isn't.
@fulinlin Then @Eelie should have written an actual sentence that makes sense instead of a patronizing-sounding fragment, IMHO. I didn't understand what that comment was getting at either.
@HelsBells for me it made complete sense. I think the problem is, that I and Eelie thought everyone knew what a salad spinner is which apparently wasn't the case. Ok, Eelie could have maybe formulated it a little bit more politely, but the his or her comment makes perfect sense. For me a salad spinner is just a kitchen basic and I never thought people would just wash their salad in the sink, but apparently some people don't have or know salad spinners. Maybe it is because I am Swiss? But I just didn't think that I would know what a salad spinner is despite having only three months lived in an English speaking country when I was 19 and other people wouldn't know.
Also, if you don't know what a salad spinner is and why you could do it that way, you just could google it and look at the pictures and you would understand. Thats what I do if things are mentioned in comments or articles, that I don't know.
Unless you have a commercial salad spinner, the bowl is too small for soaking any real quantity of greens. You need enough space for the greens to float freely so that any debris sinks to the bottom and stays there when you pull the greens out.
@Emma, so glad that you shared this ... I do the same thing.
@tamingthetart, I agree. I considered purchasing a salad spinner; but, it's no match for a salad meant to last a few days ... especially if large leaf greens like romaine are being used. When I wash greens to cook, it's a mix of collard, turnip, mustard & sometimes kale & spinach. They wilt like crazy when cooked; so, a lot are needed for multi-servings.
... My trusty, huge stainless steel bowl with large stainless steel colander have served me well. My garden appreciates the rinse water!