I've been thinking about taking a head of lettuce and some packets of dressing. I figure it would provide a nice side salad for two of us for three nights - basic wedges seems simple. Keep with other cooler stuff in insulated pack. Anyone have experiences with this?

You have to be very careful with lettuce. Outer leaves will freeze readily when they come in contact with ice, and you can get a brown slimy mess. My experience was just from trying to transport it in a cooler.

Keep it cool and well wrapped :)

I usually take some size hard sided cooler in, size is group dependant, but if there is room, lettuce goes in last, seperated from the other stuff with some newspaper. Stays plenty cool. IMO, romaine is the way to go, lettuce wise, cut to size of cooler, is robust, perfect for tacos, etc. A treat if you can pack it in.

quote billconner: "I've been thinking about taking a head of lettuce and some packets of dressing. I figure it would provide a nice side salad for two of us for three nights - basic wedges seems simple. Keep with other cooler stuff in insulated pack. Anyone have experiences with this?"

This thread interested me, I miss a fresh salad when on a week or longer trip. I looked around my local stores for something that would travel well, be easy and taste good. I found a salad/spinach mix in Guinta's Meat Farms-a local store for me. In my camping larder I had packets of grated Parmesan cheese & Italian dressing from Minimus.biz. A handful of croutons wrapped in foil, placed with all the accoutrements in a zip lock.

This Spring I took 2 Fresh Express 50/50 salad/spinach singles (1.5 oz each), a few cherry tomatoes, a small cucumber, a packet of Italian dressing, a packet of Parmesan cheese & the croutons for our second dinner meal. I put it all together into a fairshare mug, it barely fit till I tossed the dressing in, then it did what salad does and as the dressing hit the lettuces it settled down into the mug. We passed it back & forth, it was refreshing, crunchy, savory and really, really good. Roughage=good.

I realize salad in a ziplock bag with a paper towel would probably be cheaper, but I threw this together last minute for our trip and the amounts worked out well. I use a barrel and this Spring was a cool one, but I could see having a salad on a trip as a regular thing. One of those Caesar salad kits are coming with next trip.

Wally World carries the 50/50 singles -

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Fresh-Express-Singles-50-50-Mix-Spring-Mix-Baby-Spinach-Salad-1.5-oz-Pack-of-2/33469980

A head of cabbage travels well.

quote billconner: "A head of cabbage travels well."

Thanks for that, I trip with one person and am always looking for exactly the right amounts so we don't have any leftovers. If I made my tripmate eat half a cabbage over a few days...I might get more than I bargained for.

I would think baby kale mix would also travel well as the leaves are a bit hardier.