Garnish panic!

sincitydisciple01 · May 8, 2011

The first event we did, we bought all of our garnish (parsley and romaine) on Friday afternoon. Threw it in a cooler and didn't think about it again until Saturday morning. Well, it didn't hold up too well and we had to scramble to replace it. Since then, we have gotten in the habit of picking it up on Saturday mornings.

This past weekend, the 2 closest grocery stores were completely out of parsley and we ran with cilantro for the first time. I don't think it cost us anything in presentation, but panic level was high Saturday morning! :doh:

So that leads me to 2 questions...

Does anyone have any tips on how to prep a box w/ cilantro (or anything other than parsley)?
Any tips on keeping parsley fresh overnight in a cooler?

thanks!!!

Crash · May 8, 2011

1) Nope, no experience with anything other than parsley.

2) Keep the parsley on top of the ice and preferably with something between it and the ice. It will be fine. If it goes under the icy water for any length of time, you may be in trouble.

Dr_KY · May 8, 2011

Buy fresh parsley that is still growing and just leave it as you would any other growing plant.

Cut parsley is best kept damp with paper towels in the fridge. Coolers are too stuffy for them long term.
We use both in competition and build with the best of each.

roksmith · May 8, 2011

We buy our parsley Wednesday evening and drop it in an orange igloo drink cooler on top of about 3 pounds of ice in a bag. Don't think about it again until Saturday morning. Comes out as fresh as it went in.

Pig Headed · May 8, 2011

We use mostly green leaf lettuce. It keeps very well standing up in a cooler just big enough to hold it up. We cover the bottom with ice, and add a little water, then stand the letttuce upright. Once we get to the site, we put it in the trailer with the lid off. It holds up very well.

Meat Burner · May 8, 2011

Don't hold me to these numbers but I think they are pretty close. We have always done well with presentation and used ice burg. Decided to go with the putting green parsley. Compared the last ice burg with the first parsley and presentation scores were exactly the the same. Like 196 ish. We do parsley all the time now but it certainly has me wandering.

slowerlowerbbq · May 8, 2011

Our last comp I bought green leaf lettuce and parsley the Saturday before. We have a great farmers market that is only open on weekends. So I left the lettuce in it's bag, wrapped the stems of the parsley with wet paper towels and left it in the fridge till we packed the RV on Thursday night. All I did was placed the bags of garnish on top of everything in the cooler and it was good as new Saturday morning when we made our boxes.

Brewer · May 9, 2011

I throw it in the cambro in a steamer tray with a few ice packs in a tray below. Since I don't use the cambro till sunday am - it works out well. I put a damp paper towel on it and let it breath a few times a day and it stays fine from friday to sunday.

Burk504 · May 9, 2011

We have one cooler dedicated just to parsley and lettuce. Bag of ice on the bottom and then put green stuff on top. We build our putting greens Friday night and use the same cooler to hold the complete boxes overnight. Works great.

Smokin' Hicks · May 9, 2011

actually if your parsley gets limp and wilted looking just take it and let it sit in a very very cold ice bath for about 10 mins and it usually brings it back....other than that, for storage the best thing to do is wrap the bunches of parsley in a damp towel and set it on top of some ice

Scottie · May 9, 2011

I store parsley 3-4 weeks. Cut ends and soak in cold ice water. You can either wrap in paper towels, about 2 bunches at time. I store mine in a clear 8 quart Cambro bin. If putting on ice, do not let it sit diretly on ice. Those containers are the best. Otherwise use thoae foam wrapping bubbles to keep it off the ice.

Garnish panic!

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