Do you make up a weeks worth or chop daily?

[reptymom]

I seem to notice that mustard greens dont last as long as collards, they turn all yellow and wilty..So do you make up a weeks worth of food or do you chop it up daily...Also the grated butternut squash doesnt look so good after just two days in the fridge..

How many people here get to eat leftover collards? I suppose when he gets bigger there wont be any leftovers..

[IguanaKing]

Nope, when your ig gets bigger, leftovers won't be a problem. I prepare about 4 days worth of food for my 2 igs. I'd prepare more, but I don't have a container big enough. 12.5 pounds of food lasts them about 4 days before they have eaten it all...sometimes they eat it all in 3.

[Marie]

reptymom said:

]How many people here get to eat leftover collards?

Well I actually buy lots of extra collards so I can have some--I love them. The other day I bought all the good ones at BiRite. Patrick went by after work to get greens for his gang and there was none left. LOL. I did offer to give him some.

[MAR]

empoyner said:

Well I actually buy lots of extra collards so I can have some--I love them.

How do you prepare them Marie?

---

I buy a few bunches of greens at once and toss them in the fridge right after getting home. Cooling them off before cutting I find allows them to keep longer. Nor do I wash them until just before they go in the cage. All in all the less handeling you do the longer they will last.

As for veggies, I've never had them keep once grated. I now have two flat graters (about $3 each) and directly grate the veggies over the greens daily and run under water. It takes longer to soak the Rep-Cal than it does to get the greens and veggies out, prepare, wash, and put away.

[prism_wolf]

I definitely make mine a week at a time. My several gallons only last about 5 days anyway between the 4 igs, uro, 2 bearded dragons and the African grey. I soak the greens (the ones in the bunches) in water as you would cut flowers. Sometimes overnight if I have the time to kill. This helps them stay fresher longer. Never less than a several hours.

We have no leftovers here. I did, however, used to cook the extra collard greens. Par boil them, then throw in some chicken boullion and bacon. Not very healthy, but very tastey... ;D.

The mustard greens do tend to go bad faster than anything else. The soaking in water will help some, but when I didn't have a house of pigs and it was only Zair...I left those out until it was time to fill the dish. The rest of the salad would already be made...keeping things that tend to get mooshy in seperate containers. As it is now...I mix everything together...and by the 5th day...things are just starting to feel slimey, but still fine to feed. If I had to make it last longer...I would make the greens salad and prepare all the other ingreds (shred, shop, whatever) and add them only when it's time to make the dish having seperate containers for each. I also have a dorm frig just for lizard food. This helps immensely on the room taken in your own frig.

[Marie]

fognight said:

How do you prepare them Marie?

I just tear the leaves up and chop the stems. I boil them with a hamhock or a porkchop--depending on if I want to go low fat or not. Also isometimes I add a packet of instant onion soup for flavor. Some of my Dad's relatives cooked them in fatback. Some would put so much in, there would be a thick layer of grease floatiing--yuck. I had someone serve me some made with oxtail. It was ok.

prismwolf said:

I soak the greens (the ones in the bunches) in water as you would cut flowers. Sometimes overnight if I have the time to kill. This helps them stay fresher longer. Never less than a several hours.
The mustard greens do tend to go bad faster than anything else. The soaking in water will help some,

I have two 13 year olds who eat only about 1 cup each at most. Huff has only been out of season 4 months of the 17 I have had him, so he eats only about 2 cups. So I chop mine daily. I soak them like PrismWolf mentioned until I am ready to prepare them. But I add a few drops of vinegar to the water. Sometimes I'll do 2 days. Baby and Dragon seem to eat a little better if I don't do more than 2 days at a time. They perfer freshly prepared. They can tell.

[Merlin]

I cut up enough for a week. I remove the large stems, roll the leaves up like a green burrito, and then with a sharp knife slice across the roll into about 1/4 inch strips. As stated the wetter the greens are when you store them the faster they go bad. Curley leaf mustard turns bad faster than the flat leaf mustard. I have also found that the greens store in a gallon plastic ice cream bucket much longer than they do in a zip lcock bag. My veggies I grate up and freeze in bigger quantities and thaw what Ineed to feed.

I also cut up some of each greens for my own salad. Make sure to cut the collards very fine as they are tough to chew.

[reptymom]

I tell you if we all ate more like iggies we might live forever...

[MAR]

Nope, if we ate like igs we would not last long as malnutrition would do us in.

Anyway that said I am now hooked. I just made collards for the first time ever and I am hooked, I made a full large bunch with about 6 pieces of bacon, one onion and chicken stock and well they're gone now. OK here's an image to think of -- I am a white boy from northern Michigan surfing for over an hour looking at ways and methods of cooking south'rn greens.

[Marie]

Try some hot pepper vinegar after dishing them up.

[Merlin]

MMMMMMMMM! Pepper Sauce!
LOL we have gone from being an iguana forum to the latest episode of "The Galloping Gourmet!"

[EsotericComposer]

With Eki I make his food daily. Lately he's been in a shed and adjusting to the new home that he isn't eating nearly enough. But I prepare and chop greens daily. I keep them in a long flat tupperware that is lined with a paper towel to keep down moisture which causes greens to rot. (I'm a chef btw.). So daily I chop up collards and mustards and whatever else the local grocery store has greens wise. I have a small chopper where I throw the stems with other vegges and sometimes fruti and literally pulverise it so it's tiny little pieces that not even a baby could choke on. I mix it iin and soak it with water and give it to him in the morning around 9:30am. Since I work the same hours each week he now has a set schedule.

[reptymom]

Ive been making three days worth and find it works great.I use some of the greens for my bluey too(who seems to be on the road to recovery)

I love collards but hate mustard or turnip greens, they taste awful to me..Kale is good too but to bad its not so great for igs(has too much goiterins(sp?) or oaxilates(sp?)cant remember which)

[prism_wolf]

reptymom said:

Kale is good too but to bad its not so great for igs(has too much goiterins(sp?) or oaxilates(sp?)cant remember which)

Actually...it's high in both...

Here's a picture guide with quick references:
www.greenigsociety.org/foodchart.htm