Lettuce last longer

Lettuce is coming in!  All our local farmers stands and farmers markets are overflowing with great, fresh, and inexpensive greens.  I get my summer vegetables once a week from a "CSA" (Community Supported Agriculture) group, and so every Thursday my refrigerator gets filled up again with green leafy things.

The deals on lettuce aren't so great, though, if you eat half of the it and let the other half wilt in the fridge.  I've learned that I can keep a head of lettuce crisp and green for a week (or sometimes longer) by wrapping it in a damp towel.  If the lettuce won't fit in the bins at the bottom of the fridge, I slip the whole thing -- lettuce and towel -- into a plastic bag.

Supposedly there are special bags you can buy that do the same thing.  My friend gave me one to try -- it didn't work better than the damp towel (in fact, the damp towel kept my greens crisper than the bag did). It also wasn't big enough to hold a large head of romaine lettuce or kale.  And of course, there's that whole "buy" thing: Why pay money to bring more plastic into this world, when you can do the same thing for free with renewable resources?  I prefer my way of saving some green.