I stumbled on an article from Country Living 11 Dirtiest Foods and it got me thinking I need to do a better job cleaning my fruit and veggies. When you really stop and think about the good food we are eating could be covered in pesticides.
While I’d love to say I buy all organic produce, I don’t. It’s really due to the cost.
I did a little search on how best to clean your fruit and veggies without a store bought cleaner.
The same three or four ingredients came up over and over.
You’ll need
water
white vinegar and/or lemon
There were a couple methods were you could mix and spray the produce and then rinse off. Personally, I’m not sure about keeping it in a bottle so I’ll just do mine in a bowl. You can just do a search on Pinterest and there are lots of ideas.
A quick mix of one part vinegar and four parts water. I had a lemon I had used earlier for dinner and squeezed what was left in the water-vinegar mix, why not?
I save the lemons to put down my garbage disposal, it keeps it smelling good!
Let soak for up a few minutes. I’ve read up to 20 but anything is better than nothing.
You could see how much was left in the bowl when I removed the strawberries.
Rinse thoroughly. I read that vinegar can extend the shelf life of your berries too (I had not tried this before so I don’t know but I’ll edit later!).
Want more ways to use vinegar. Here are some of my posts.
My favorite DIY shower cleaner.
Use to clean your dishwasher and washing machine.
This is great information, Susan. I am a big believer in cleaning produce from the market and homegrown!
Happy Thursday,
xo
Jemma
I have rinsed my strawberries in apple cider vinegar and it does extend their shelf life! It gets rid of the bacteria that causes them to mold. I need to wash the rest of my produce. Thanks for the reminder and visual!
I need to be better about this as well, thanks for the reminder! And good to know that apple cider vinegar helps to extend the shelf life …thanks Cecilia!
I have a food confession…I’ve always tried to buy fresh fruits and vegetables grown in the USA thinking they would be healthier. Now I understand that they have probably been sprayed with insecticides or Round Up and that scares me! I’ve always washed well but I appreciate this info because honestly…organic everything is just too expensive.