Saturday, May 25, 2013

Did you know that many of the "fruit and vegetable washes" on the market today are actually full of chemicals?  Doesn't that seems strange?  Why wash your produce to get rid of sprays (and bugs, dirt etc) only to put more on?

HUH?  That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.


Plus you're paying money for it.  That makes even less sense!

The solution?  A vinegar and water soak!  1/4 to 1/2 a cup of white vinegar (depending on the size of the bowl you're using, or if you are soaking a lot of produce, and want to use the kitchen sink (cleaned first of course), then it's around 1 cup.

Then you just soak for around 20 minutes or so, giving it a stir once or twice to make sure to get anything that might be floating.  After that, just rinse, and you're done!

You can also use the vinegar soak for things like strawberries.  You know how strawberries often develop mould on them, even if you've only had them for a couple of days, and you've been keeping them in the fridge?  Don't you just HATE that?!  Well the vinegar soak will kill and remove the majority of the mould spores which are already on the strawberries you just bought at the market today (but you can't see them).  They should last much longer than they would have otherwise.

JUST BE SURE TO LAY THEM OUT ON A CLEAN DISHCLOTH AN ALLOW THEM TO COMPLETELY DRY (TURNING THEM ONCE) BEFORE PUTTING THEM IN A CONTAINER AND THEN IN THE FRIDGE.

The vinegar and water soak will remove much of the wax/pesticides/critters/dirt which are always on your farmer's market finds, and it's very inexpensive.  Plus it takes little effort!  Can't beat that right?!

Here's my morning snack today (having a late lunch--around 230pm!  Good Lord I'd DIE if I didn't have a snack! LOL

I just soak, rinse, chop, and voila!  Fresh healthy fruit salad!