dogontour

I saw an item at the grocery store called living lettuce. It's a head of lettuce, in a plastic container, that still has its roots attached and as long as you keep the roots moist it is still alive...which I imagine would keep it from wilting. Anyone ever take one of these on their bikes? Any idea how long one might expect such a thing to last in a pannier?

Tiff

Jed19

Does anyone have a way of taking ice cream on tour?

tjwarren

A regular head of lettuce is still alive...

Bikearound

Lettuce has almost no nutritional value outside of maybe fiber unless it's some kind of unusual lettuce. If you really need live food, find a farm along the way or look for edible plants on your route.

dogontour

Well, regular lettuce in the grocery store wilts...in the garden, they don't. So I was thinking that that would be the difference. I have a similar thing of Basil on my counter right now and as long as I keep the roots moist, it stays fresh but if I let it start to dry out, it gets all wilty until I add water again. So it stands to reason that the lettuce with roots still attached would be easier to keep from wilting and becoming a slimy mess in the bag. And lettuce is much better for you than lots of other things I see people eating...not that I would be living on lettuce alone.

Connell

The concept behind this is, that the lettuce stays fresher for longer than a regular head would do. You're supposed to add water to the plastic container every few days.

Off the top of my head, some problems when it comes to carrying one on a tour would be...

The water would drip out and into your bag
The container is quite flimsy and would have to be packed carefully
It's also rather bulky and would require more space than a lettuce would really justify
Live or not, without refrigeration a lettuce will get skunky fairly fast

Soooooo
It would make more sense simply to buy lettuce as and when you wanted it

Connell

'Course, you'll need ice too.

evanp

Huh? Not many calories, but very nutirtious (from Wolfram-Alpha):

Plus, either 77% or 103% of your RDA for vitamin K (male/female, respectively).

staehpj1

I don't know about that lettuce, but we found that cabbage kept well. We used both the bags of coleslaw mix and heads of cabbage and both kept well even in extreme heat. It added a nice crunch to our wraps and was good cooked as well. Carrots worked out very well wrt durability too.

a1rabbit

Yes.

Bikearound

It depends on what kind of lettuce you're talking about. Lettuce comes in many varietys.

tjwarren

In the garden they're not kept in a humid plastic bag.

Buy your produce, wash it, *dry it*. Wrap it in some paper towels and stick it in a ziplock. If it starts to wilt soak it in some cold water, then dry it off and repackage it.


Another option, if you're looking to hold on to produce long-term, is to pick up a few of those "Produce Saver" bags. I don't know why these bags work so well, but they do. Produce really does last longer in them (in the fridge, anyway, but I imagine they'll work pretty well on a bike as well). You can wash and re-use them, too: my wife picked ours up like two years ago, and they still work great.

njkayaker

In a hot pannier? Probably not very long. Cabbage is more robust.

prathmann

So don't heat your pannier. One technique I've used on a few tours is to keep just the bladder from a Camelback in my handlebar bag. Many convenience stores and fast food places have ice machines at their soda fountains, so when I get myself some breakfast I also fill up the bladder with ice. Inside the handlebar bag that usually retains some ice most of the day and can be replenished as needed. So I have some cold water to drink and also keep any food that needs refrigeration in the handlebar bag.

Cyclebum

I recall being amazed a couple of years ago at how many responses a thread about soap generated over at CG. But that's been easily topped in weirdness by this thread. Who'd ever thought a question about growing lettice could ever have found relevance in a cycle touring forum.

njkayaker

Your handle bar must be quite big to be able to hold that lettuce without crushing it! The ice-in-the-Camelback thing is an interesting approach. It seems, though, not too convenient to have to carry this lettuce for multiple days.

spinnaker

Don't know but TwoDeadPoets has a way to carry bananas. If you ever see him ask him to show it to you. It even glows in the dark.

prathmann

It would be big enough to carry a head of lettuce, but I've never used it for that. But I have carried meat and other perishable groceries in it and they've stayed nice and cold.

A large pannier can make a much more effective cooler if needed by using the rest of your luggage (esp. sleeping bag and clothing) as insulation and packing the food and some ice inside. Of course you need to make sure that the ice is contained in a completely waterproof container - two or more layers would be advisable.

staehpj1

I was surprised that the insides of our panniers didn't get nearly as hot as I would of expected during long days in the sun in 100F heat. Were they hot? Sure, but food still kept surprisingly well. My companions put a camelback type bladder in their front panniers with a hose and bite valve attached up on the handlebar. They started the day with it full of ice and the water stayed cold even on very hot days (the year we did the TA high temperature records were broken most of the places we went through).

Machka 

If I really wanted lettuce on a tour (rather unlikely, but possible on the odd occasion), I'd buy one of those small prepackaged bags of salad, and eat it all in one meal.

Juha

Most all fresh herbs and lettuce/salad varieties are available like that around here. We spent a week at a remote cottage and ate fresh salad every day - we had 5-6 of these sitting on a plate by the window. We watered them every now and then. I'm not sure they'd fare equally well in touring conditions.

--J

Phil_gretz

eeeewww.

njkayaker

Yes, this could work (if you had the room). It would be better if you had stuff that wasn't too sensitive to being crushed.

The problem with this suggestion (as reasonable as it might appear), is that the lettuce isn't "alive" at the point of consumption. It would seem that dispensing with this finicky requirement when touring isn't an option.

tjwarren

Nearly all of the produce you buy at the store is still alive. It still respires, it will still circulate water, and if you cultivate it properly you can get it to grow into a whole new plant.

If it's fresh produce and you haven't cooked it yet, it's probably still alive.

njkayaker

That's why I put "alive" in quotes! I think the OP is being overly fussy. While that is her right, I suspect that it's unlikely that she will find other tourists who have had the experience she is is looking for.