salad conservation

[hoax]

Hello,

yet another question

I was just wondering.. do you guys make a fresh new salad everytime you need to feed the igs? Or is it possible to make a larger ammount, and refrigerate the rest for later the same day or the next day? Does it lose the nutritional value if its pre-mixed and refrigerated?

thanks
renato

[IguanaKing]

I usually buy a variety of 7-10 types of greens and veggies. Then I wash/soak everything, a bit at a time, in my kitchen sink. While each type of greens are soaking, I remove large stems and tear the greens into smaller pieces by hand. Then I scoop them out of the water with a collander (strainer). I use the collander just to get the greens out of the water, but I don't worry too much about draining them. Then, the solid veggies go into the sink to be washed a few at a time. From there the solid veggies go into the food processor to be chopped into tiny pieces. I combine everything in a 2.4 Gallon container. It ends up being packed tightly in that container, and I get a pretty good work-out shaking the container to mix everything. The food mixture is only in my refrigerator for about 3 to 4 days before it is all eaten, since I have two large adults. With a smaller, single ig like Vaga, it might be best to freshly prepare each meal. The veggies last longer if they're not torn or chopped all at once. Its OK to store the food in the refrigerator as long as the refrigerator doesn't get cold enough to form ice crystals. As long as the veggies don't freeze, they won't lose their nutritional value.

[bgingras]

I wash and pre-chop my greens, this saves much time in the morning. The vegies I cut and add to the greens. The carrots I cut with a peeler, it makes nice thin slices that he likes. I store my stuff in glad containers, cheap and seal tight.

[MAR]

I don't wash anything initially. I will chop my greens mix them together and put them in a plastic bag squeeze the air out and toss it in the fridge. They sit in the fridge unwashed.

For each feeding I grab a handful of mixed greens from the bag and toss them in a colendar. Over the greens in the colendar I grate the hard veggies with a large cheese grater. This mix is then tossed under running cold water which both washes and introduces a lot of water. I take this whole dripping mass and put it right on the food plate and cover with the soaked rep-cal. This takes me three or four minutes mainly because of the time for the rep-cal.

I find this way also keeps a lot of water going into my ig as the greens are really wet and I usually have about 5 mm of standing water in the bottom of the salad plate.

My theory is the less you handle the greens the longer they will last and be in better condition. Use the sharpest straight blade knife you have to chop greens as a dull blade will bruse them and start rot.

It takes me about 10 (maybe 15 with a lot of stems) to chop the greens and get them in the fridge.

[really]

What we found works well (with one green and one cyclura, 10 and 11 inches snv respectively) is to soak the stems of the greens in water (like in a vase or bucket) and then wash them all. We chop everything (well, dh does, actually) and put it in a rubbermaid container lined with paper towels beneath and on top of the greens. We change out the paper toweling every day or two and the salad will stay fresh for an entire week this way. The squashes and such I usually do in my chopper every day. If dh can't do this and I have to chop the greens for some reason, Kismet and Mayan both go on hunger strikes.

[hoax]

These are some very helpfull tips!

I just wanted to be sure I could prepare her a mix in the morning and use the same mix later that day, or at the most for 2 days. Its gonna be a lot easier this way.. ;D

thanks a lot!
renato