Trick for Washing Collards, Mustard, Kale. Other sandy greens.

I can't imagine having to wash enough greens to warrant using the washing machine, but I have used it for a similar application--rinsing and gently washing pickling cucumbers. It worked perfectly.

Sam: Great Advice!!! Thanks for the info! About to try it now. I live in TN. No matter where you live, we are all trying to conserve water and work to aid the planet. For people who have HE washing machines your method is NOT a WASTE of WATER!! What's an HE Top-Load Washing Machine? It's an Agitator models cost less and are faster than top-loading washing machines without an agitator, known as high-efficiency (HE) washing machines. Most HE washers are better at cleaning, gentler on fabrics, use less water, and have larger capacities. Plus, it's not like people are washing greens 3-4 times per day...not as much as a family with kids might wash clothes anyway...

I have sad for people thinking this wasting water. Did you use you washing machine to wash clothes and underwear in your sink with 2 gallons of water? How about your Cloth Diapers.
And X number of quarts of water in the washing machine is the same as X numbers of quarts of water in the sink. But the mechanical spin and rinse and spray save water. With modern Washing Machine...they use less water than a large sink.

And if you're chemically conscious...cleaning out your washing machine with environmentally safe Citric acid and final rinse of White Vinegar removes many soap chemicals....which can cause skin allergies. You should really do that anyway..for cloth washing machines and dishwasher. (dishwashers will built up 'white dust'--running it empty with Citric Acid will remove the soap scum build up...as will white vinegar).

It's another use for an appliance in the house...I find it odd that it's because 'clothes' it's off limits. Why is washing a mess of greens in a washing machine Irresponsible in California as opposed to washing any clothing?

Ru oh Sam.

I pull the leaves off of the stems (the stems go into my Mom's compost if I'm in San Diego or to the chickens and hogs that my friend owns if I'm in Oregon) and slice or tear them as needed for whatever I am going to do with them. The leaves go into a big bowl of water. Swish swish and into the salad spinner they go. I've never found a need to use two bowls of water, but the greens I get are pretty clean.

The bowl of sandy water goes out to the tub collected by my apt complex community garden. #conservation

Find a container that is taller than it is wide. That way you wont end up scooping up the sand that falls down. A full Washing machine is quite obsessive. To dry move to your salad spinner or a towel.

A better trick is to soak them in warm (not hot) water in your salad spinner for a bit, drain, rinse, making sure the dirt, etc., is gone, then soak in cold water to crisp. We did this in the restaurant with produce from local farms and it works really well. I agree that Sam's method is a serious waste of water esp. in the west.

Separate the leaves of the vegetable. Place in a large bowl of cold water and swirl with your hands. Sand should sink to the bottom of the bowl. Using your hands, transfer leaves to a dishtowel. Dump water, refill bowl, put leaves back into bowl, swirl, etc. Repeat until you don't see sand at the bottom of the bowl. Dry off leaves in a dishtowel or salad spinner.

Um, no thanks.

Clean your washing machine with several cups of vinegar on the wash cycle. Add the vinegar to the fabric softener cup too.

This removes any soap scum. If you have a cup of citric acid that's even better to use to clean the machine. Run it again with just water to rinse it well.

Then you can just throw in all the green into the full tub of cold water. (I even add a cup of white vinegar here too to help remove any pests or pesticides)
Give Swirl with your hands. Let it sit a few mins.

Then throw it through the rinse and spin cycle. Yea! it's also a salad spinner.