[CH] Washing your produce
George (r2b9@earthlink.net)
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:50:03 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
>>Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:10:23 -0500
From: "jim" <jim@mail.wildpepper.com>
Subject: Re: [CH] Yahoo Article on Mexican Jalapenos
Re: Something that I don't understand... is it simply because people
aren't washing them before they eat them?
Washing any and ALL fresh produce goes a long way to reducing your
risks. Even the stuff that comes in the bags and is 'thoroughly washed'
gets a quick rinse from me, which takes the chances down to near zero.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I am a fervent believer in washing that bagged salad stuff. Most of the baggers (if not all) use a common preservative on it (or impregnated into the bag itself) to keep it from wilting or browning. This is fine and well, but there is something in that preservative that causes my lips to be irritated, almost blister-ish. So, I wash the hell out of it, and dry it with my handy salad spinner. No problems since with the bagged greenery.
Now, regarding washing your local (or megastore-bought) produce: YES! At the very least, you don't know how many hands have touched it, including youngins aka "booger-eaters", and where those hands were prior to yours. I still remember the first potato that I washed, sold under the guise of "washed and ready to eat". My little scrub brush revealed all sorts of Idaho's Finest left on the skin. Since I enjoy eating the skin along with the potato (and not so much the lovely volcanic soil it was raised in), that also has become a regular practice.
I know there are those that say a little dirt in your diet is good for you, but I'll leave that to the worms to process and integrate into my produce via the root system. Of course, at OF, I'll still eat Jim's peppers straight off the plant and run around afterwards screaming like that kid in Home Alone. I'm really curious how the mutant jumbo jalapenos will be this year since the weather has been so mellow. [Homer Simpson sounds] MMMM, Open Fields.[/Homer Simpson sounds]
George in Indy