I have very little grit problems if I mulch well. On my plants the grit comes from water splashing upon the plants.

I pull off the larger leaves and lay around the plants if I don't have any mulch handy.

I agree with what Larry said. I find it easier to keep grit off if the whole area around the plants is well mulched. That doesn't mean you still won't have to wash the greens really well, but it does mean they are easier to clean.

I do the standard soaking, swishing around in water, then letting water settle for a few minutes before scooping out the leaves and putting them in a colander. Then I pour the water out of the bowl, rinse the bowl to get rid of any grit stuck to it, and then I repeat the soaking and swishing a couple more times. When you let the dirt and grit settle to the bottom of the bowl and then lift the leaves out without stirring up the bottom, you get progressively cleaner leaves each time.

After at least three rounds of soaking and rinsing, I run them through the salad spinner to spin off excess moisture.

Nowadays, I raise much of my lettuce and mesclun greens in containers filled with a good soil-less mix.They always are much cleaner than salad greens grown in the ground. Still, you have to do the triple washing. I usually do the first level of washing outside at the water faucet before I even bring them in.

When your greens are well-mulched, there is less available bare soil to splash up onto the plants with every raindrop.

If you harvest them by cutting them off a couple of inches above ground level instead of pulling up the plant by its roots, that helps them stay cleaner. If the whole plant needs to come up, I still harvest the leaves and get them out of there and then come back and pull up the roots later. An amazing amount of soil comes off the roots and ricochets onto the leaves when you pull up a whole plant by the roots.

I think getting greens clean enough is always a battle.The vinegar soak seems more useful, to me, for getting little aphids or whatever off the leaves.

Dawn

In addition to mulching, I choose smooth leaved varieties over crinkly, most of the time. I did end up with Lolla Rosa lettuce this year which in addition to being crinkly, is very short. But usually I buy the smooth leaved types of mustard, lettuce, spinach and kale. And like Dawn says it is easier to get the grit off if you lift the leaves out of the water. I use the same 3 wash followed by spin system that she does.

Great post. I was wondering the same though I am not currently eating my greens. I'm feeding them to my rabbits.

Given the surgery I haven't done anything with efforts, but I threw seeds in the dirt and just let them grow knowing the rabbits would surely enjoy it.

And they did, but I noticed so much icky dirt. I'll remember to mulch well to help keep my own fodder clean. :)