Review: Clearly Fresh Bags

Too much dill

People who aren’t food bloggers think that I must always have really great food at home. The reality is that when I try new recipes, I do have great food at home. But I also have a lot of wasted food. When a recipe calls for a tablespoon of minced dill, for example, I wind up with a lot more dill on my hands, because let’s face it – grocery stores don’t sell fresh herbs by the tablespoon. A lot of times I have a lot more of something than I really need or want for the moment, and unless I find another recipe where I can use those specific ingredients I have to throw out some pretty expensive produce sometimes.

A few weeks ago I was introduced to Clearly Fresh Bags, a new produce storage product that is meant to help your vegetables, fruits and fresh herbs from going to waste quite as quickly as they normally would on your counter or in your refrigerator. They sent me a complimentary package of 10 bags, which look like your basic sealable plastic bags, except each have BreatheWay technology. It basically looks like a sticker, but it is what allows the oxygen to get into the bag and carbon dioxide to escape making it so that the produce lasts longer.

Clearly Fresh Bags

Since I had a ton of dill on hand, I decided to do a little experiment. I had already had this dill for a few days, so it wasn’t exactly at its peak freshness when I placed it in one of the Clearly Fresh bags on July 20, but it still had some decent life in it.

Fresh dill going into a Clearly Fresh bag

I then took a little bit of dill from the main bunch and placed it into one of my fabric produce bags that I use when I go to my grocery store. I wanted to see how this would fare compared to the Clearly Fresh Bags. Both went into the crisper of my refrigerator.

Storing dill in a fabric produce bag

Eleven days later I decided to try making a soup with a good amount of dill thrown in it. When I pulled out the dill that had been in the Clearly Fresh bag, I saw that it was definitely loosing life, but it was still mostly usable. There were a few leaves that were going slimy, but I was able to use exactly the amount of dill I needed without a problem.

The dill survived after 11 days in the refrigerator

I also took out the dill that had been in the fabric produce bag and it had definitely seen better days. It was very wilted and did not look like it was as young as the dill that had been in the Clearly Fresh bag.

Clearly Fresh Bags vs. a fabric produce bag

I have to admit that I was pretty impressed. These bags obviously do work – the produce lasts longer which can be a huge money saver.

The only real con is that these bags are only reusable a handful of times. Clearly Fresh Bags recommends that you use them only a couple of times then switch them out. You cannot rinse the bags, because that would damage the BreatheWay sticker and the bag would loose its purpose in extending the life of produce.

Another downside is that these seem to only be available through their website, so for now you’ll have to order them online. If they catch on, though, I bet we’ll be seeing these in the store one of these days.

To learn more about Clearly Fresh Bags, visit www.clearlyfreshbags.com or watch their video.

What are your favorite ways to make your produce last longer?

P.S. I am going to the first vegan blogger conference (ever!) this weekend in Portland. It’s Vida Vegan Con and I’ll be attending a few cooking demos, plus sitting in on some pretty interesting panel discussions on vegan diet and lifestyle. If you want to follow what is going on, be sure to watch Facebook and Twitter (#VidaVeganCon if you want to follow a bunch of bloggers). I’m going to try to post pictures, tips and other miscellaneous fun.

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