Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Organic Fruit and Vegetable Wash


95% of the fresh fruit and vegetables I buy are organic, but not all fruits are available organically at all times. Take grapes, for instance. Organic or domestic grapes are so hard to come by, especially during this time of year, even at our co-op. So, what's a Mom to do? Offer no grapes at all in their childs diet or wash with an organic fruit wash? I clean and soak my conventional grapes. The wash is designed to remove pesticide, fungicide and herbicide residues, wax and oils from the produce.
There are many fruit and vegetable washes out there, but you can simply make your own! (I do both...I have a bottle you can buy in the supermarket, but I have also made my own.) Choose which one works for you!

Directions:
All you need is a spray bottle, one tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice, 2 tablespoons vinegar, and 1 cup water. Put the ingredients in the spray bottle and shake well. Spritz on your produce, and rinse well. If you're washing a lot of produce at one time, I usually put 1/4 cup of "cleaner" into a bowl of water, soak for about 30 seconds, swish, and rinse well.
For more Works For Me Wednesday tips go to We are THAT Family

9 comments:

  1. Looking forward to perusing your blog. I am also interested in the same things! Thanks for the veggie wash idea. I had decided to quit buying grapes because they are highly treated and one can never get that nasty taste off of them, not to mention how bad it is for your system!

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  2. Well...Welcome to the "Cozy Country" Better Is Little, and you're most welcome for the wash "recipe". Yes, conventional/non domestic grapes are one of the dirty dozen, but I can only get them June or July through Nov. around here (organic or domestic), but they're so high in nutritional value (not to mention they help with my kids bowels!!) so I do the wash, especially with them. Hope you can find/learn some new ideas here! Thanks for visiting!!

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  3. Great tip! I have getting my produce wet and then lightly scrubbing it with baking soda (then rinsing). I read somewhere about it, but I like your spray/soak solution.

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  4. Thanks so much! I love homemade cleaners and things... I'll definitely have to give this one a try. :)

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  5. This is great, thanks for posting this recipe. I will be putting it to use very soon!

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  6. This probably does a good job of rinsing off what's on the outside, but if a thin-skinned fruit such as a strawberry has been treated with pesticides, hasn't it penetrated the fruit?
    -Melanie Glenn

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  7. Melanie that's a good question... the vinegar neutralizes the pesticides.

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  8. How long will this wash keep with the lemon juice in it? Or is it a make it and use it kind of thing. I'd like to have at least a medium sized bottle of it ready to go for whenever I need to wash the fruits and veggies.
    Thanks

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  9. You can make a big spray bottle of it and leave it in the fridge. Just shake before you use it and spray fruit (is what I do...just find that it's easier), or pour into a bowl and soak it. Or, if you don't want to make a whole bottle of it, you can make as much as you need.

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