My opinion of Clearly Fresh Bags

My garden is going nuts. As long as I can keep the bugs at bay, most of the plants are becoming quite prolific. I get something new out of it everyday, and between my garden, the CSA I split with my Mom, and weekly trips to the farmer’s market  it’s all we can do to keep up!  I love it though. There is something very comforting about being surrounded by plenty to eat. The only problem with an abundance of produce is that sometimes it can all go bad before you can get around to using it which is really depressing when you have worked so hard growing all that precious produce. And sometimes it just gets lost in the fridge, only to resurface a couple weeks later all moldy and mushy. Depressing I tell you.

So, when Clearly Fresh Bags asked me to do a review last month, I jumped at the opportunity, because I knew a plethora of produce was coming. I also decided that I was going to do a serious test. I was going to do the it-got-buried-in-the-back-of-the-fridge test. I tested out green beans, kohlrabi, green onions, and lettuce and then left them in my fridge to ruin.

I’m sure there is some kind of complex science behind these bags. All I know is that they have a special venting system to keep the contents of the bag from spoiling quickly. They call it a “Breathway membrane”, I’m going to call it magic. Because I took the green beans and kohlrabi out after a month and was pleasantly surprised. The contents where still fresh. Not “just picked” fresh, but certainly still very edible. The lettuce and onions looked very fresh after two weeks. They had minimal browning and they both were still nice and crisp. Anyone who has every lost a head of lettuce in the fridge knows that 2 weeks is way past the life expectancy of lettuce.

Now these bags are awesome, but there are a couple negatives. The first and most annoying is that the zip closure is not the greatest. It’s tough to close up the bag if you have had less than two cups of coffee that morning and I have found myself cussing them very early in the day. The only other, mildy annoying, quality is that the plastic seems to be kind of thin. Maybe that’s necessary for the bags to work their magic, but I’m not sure how many times you could wash and reuse these bags before they just wore out.

All and all, the bags work great and I have really liked having them around to help keep my surplus of produce usable for a long period of time. If you have a productive garden this year or just a crowded fridge, you might want to check them out too!

Clearly Fresh Bags has not paid me for this review they only sent me a free sample.