Essential CSA Kitchen Tools – Salad Spinner

On CSA pick up day the Salad Spinner gets quite a work out.  Every week in our CSA there are greens.  Early on there will be arugula, bok choi, radish and turnips greens, as the summer goes on we’ll have broccoli rabe and spinach, and in the fall we hope for collard greens and kale.  We also get lettuce and herbs almost every week.  All these leafy greens need cleaned and stored.
 
The salad spinner does a great job with a quick rinse on herbs and then a quick spin.  I then line a plastic bag with a paper towel to store these herbs.
 
Greens like lettuce, spinach, and bok choi can come with lots of gritty dirt.  The salad spinner allows you to fill the container with water and then immerse the greens in the water.  Let them sit for a few minutes and the dirt will fall to bottom of the container.  I then pick up the colander section, drain the greens, discard the dirty water, and spin the greens to prepare them for storage.
 
And as any fan of Alton Brown knows, we try very hard to avoid uni-taskers.  The bowl of my Salad Spinner makes for a great salad bowl.  The lid also fits securely and the plunger locks in a lowered position to allow for easy transport. 
 
One week till our first CSA pick up!  We get to pick up a week early, I’m so very excited