Homemade produce wash

 

Do you remember as a child, twisting the apple stem while saying the alphabet to determine who you were going to marry? A, B, C… Well, that’s how we came up with the name of the imaginary boy who used to embarrass me: Quinton Xylophone. Okay, you might be thinking I led a pretty bizarre childhood about now, so let me explain. I’m the youngest of four girls, and when I was little, my dad used to tease us by pretending some boys were coming over. I don’t know why, but being from a family with no boys, the idea of boys coming over was just awful. After all, boys had cooties.

He’d use this crazy voice, pretending they were at the door, asking for me to come out. As I grew older and changed my view of boys, my dad found a way to continue with the game. He decided that the owner of this crazy voice was my boyfriend (or at least this annoying boy who wanted to be my boyfriend). It drove me nuts!

One night, at the dinner table, I decided to eat an apple and began, as always, with the ritual of twisting off the stem while saying the letters of the alphabet; however, with an audience, I knew I needed a way to pull the stem off with a letter that no boy’s name began with. I strategically pulled it off at Q. To my dismay, my dad quickly announced the name Quinton. I grabbed another apple and carefully twisted the stem until I got to X. And now my imaginary boyfriend was named. Let me remind you that I didn’t want an imaginary boyfriend; my family forced him upon me. Ugh! Being the youngest is sometimes annoying.

 Let’s move ahead 25 years. Do I still twist off my stem? Nope. However, every time I eat an apple, I think of my dad and his constant teasing of his little girls. He teases me a lot less now, but I’m still his little girl and always will be. All these years, I still enjoy a good apple though my preference for the tart Granny Smith has changed to the sweet organic Gala. After all, apples are among the 12 dirty dozen produce items*. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to convince the rest of my family to buy organic. Thankfully, I learned about a homemade produce wash during a MOPS meeting that helps remove some of those nasty chemicals on fruits and veggies. I used to use a store-bought one, but it’s rather costly. Here’s the instructions…

Homemade Produce Wash:

o      1 cup purified water
o      1 cup distilled white vinegar
o      1 Tbsp. baking soda
o      20 drops of grapefruit seed extract (can be found at health food and/or vitamin stores)

Step One: Pour water into spray bottle. Add 20 drops of grapefruit seed extract.

Step Two: Pour vinegar into 2 cup measuring cup. Slowly mix in baking soda because when it’s mixed with vinegar, it will bubble up quite a bit. Once it’s settled down, pour into the spray bottle.









Step Three: Spray mixture on produce. Let stand for 10 minutes. Rinse thoroughly.

*In case you were wondering about the Dirty Dozen, here they are:

1. Celery
2. Peaches
3. Strawberries
4. Apples
5. Domestic blueberries
6. Nectarines
7. Sweet bell peppers
8. Spinach, kale and collard greens
9. Cherries
10. Potatoes
11. Imported grapes
12. Lettuce

So if you, like me, want to avoid as many chemicals as possible but can’t afford to go 100% organic, you can at least keep this list handy when you go shopping, and when you can’t buy organic, use the produce wash to reduce the amount of chemicals on your food.


To see the linky parties where I shared this tutorial, click here.