Yummy Fruits and Vegetables |
One of our favorite DIY cleaning projects in the kitchen is a wash for the produce we buy. You know, when it's homegrown, you have control over knowing what's on your own stuff, but when you buy from a store, you never know what was sprayed on it, how many people have handled it along the way, and so on. It's better to be safe. Most of the news stories you read about E. coli outbreaks come from contaminated produce.
A simple washing will get rid of anything you might be worried about. You can buy a product in the store that will do this, but it's very pricey and you don't exactly know what's in it. So a few years ago, we found the following "recipe" online and now we always keep a bottle of this under the kitchen sink, ready for a moments notice.
Instructions:
1 Cup water
3/4 Cup distilled white vinegar
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp baking soda
Get an inexpensive spray bottle,
pour all ingredients inside, shake it up, and then spray your produce.
After you spray them, let them sit for a few minutes, we use a colander, then rinse off under running water.
You can wash anything except berries, too many nooks and crannies for the stuff to get into and you sure don't want vinegar flavored berries!
Just shake it well before each use and you'll be good to go!
Just shake it well before each use and you'll be good to go!
Your produce will thank you and most importantly, so will your health.
Wow, this is EXACTLY what I was lookin for. Thanks for the info, I'll be making some today.
ReplyDeleteUm....I was a little concerned mixing baking soda and vinegar...and sure enough as soon as I added the baking soda....woosh...all over the place...How do you keep that from happening>
ReplyDeleteHmmm, I haven't had that issue. What I do is put the baking soda in the bottle first. Then I had the lemon juice, the water, and then the vinegar. By then it's so diluted down there haven't been any problems with fizzing. I've still got a bottle that 2nd Man made a month or so ago, let me make some more soon and I'll experiment.
DeleteFeel free to leave out the baking soda if you have issues. The vinegar, lemon and water are more than adequate for cleaning, no worries there. Many recipes online don't use the baking soda (and others like mine do) so it's ok either way. :-)