Washing Produce!

[Davylp25]

Okay any tips and tricks on cleaning produce?

Sometimes my greens have so much dirt on them. I have a water filter on my kitchen sink and when I use it the pressure of it is sooo low. So cleaning these vegs are soo time consuming. If I dont use the filter the pressure is fine. But I dont want to clean with gross water. Any tips?

Probably PATIENCE RIGHT? lol

[Lay-Lay]

I wash mine with luke warm water and sea salt.

[Sharon in Colorado]

If you place the greens in a giant bowl of very cold water and swish them around (not with you feet, hint, hint) the dirt will fall to the bottom. Gently lift out the greens leaving the dirt behind.

Much more effective than rinsing in a colandar. This is what I do with things like bunches of spinach.

[Davylp25]

Yeah but it would take forever to fill up that bowl because of the filter. I wont use just regular tap water to clean. Yuck.

[Sharon in Colorado]

You can use your tap water to loosen off the dirt and then rinse it clean with the filtered water. You know, plants actually thrive better on tap water, if you give them filtered water they won't survive.

[Davylp25]

OH REALLY?? WOW, wake me up to that knowledge? How so? Why? That would be so much easier that way.

[Sharon in Colorado]

Try placing a celery stalk in a glass of filtered water and another in a glass of tap water and see which one lasts longer.

I have done this experiment and the one in the tap water lasts longer. It is because plants need the minerals. However, we don't (need tap water) since we get them (minerals) from the plants. They do all the work for us so we don't have to! :)

[Davylp25]

WOW, I always thought tap water was bad overall. Otherwise I wouldnt have even made this post. But I see... I will wash with regular water to get the dirt off, then rinse off that water with the filtered water. COOL! Duh!

[vgloveforlife]

Tap water can be bad. There are harmful things such as lead in it so I would try to avoid it as much as possible.

[alex]

I just rinse organic produce in tap water. Tap water is bad with all the fluoride, chlorine, heavy metals, traces of chemotherapy drugs, prescription drugs and other 'acceptable contaminants', The amount that is left on the veggies is negligible once I pat them dry - you just can't avoid everything. Since we eat raw and have detoxed, our body burden must be pretty low compared to most other people. Our bodies know how to detox normally and do so. It is the overburdening of our detox systems that causes most of the problems.

I would not worry about the soil too much - there seems to be growing evidence that we don't eat enough soil, that our obsession with cleanliness is actually detrimental. Our immune systems must be challenged - like given a work out just like our muscles and other systems. One does not want to eat dirt by the spponful, but a little bit here and there on our veggies is actually beneficial. The reall problem seems to be that our soils are pathetic and do not contain the right organisms anymore due to all the chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, herbisides etc that we throw on them. Hopefully organic soil is better.


alex

[mud]

Eat the dirt! It's got essential vitamins in it!

LOL.

[Sharon in Colorado]

WOW, I always thought tap water was bad overall. Otherwise I wouldnt have even made this post. But I see... I will wash with regular water to get the dirt off, then rinse off that water with the filtered water. COOL! Duh!

Yes, we don't need to drink it, because of the hard minerals and such. Besides you are getting your hydration from the food itself, so if you need to drink, filtered or distilled water is great.

I personally wash my produce with the tap water. However I'm in the Rocky mountains and may have a different water situation. My mother in California has a whole house water purifier, because the water there is not so great.