If you’d like an easy homemade fruit and vegetable wash recipe, you’ll find it below! You really don’t need a special cleaner for your fruits and vegetables. Just wash them with a weak solution of dish detergent and a scrub brush. If you still prefer to use a special wash, this is a good recipe that is the same as the “natural” stuff in the store.
[dining]
I like to use just plain regular table salt to wash my fruit and fruit and vegetables.
I fill my sink with cool/warm water while cutting or preparing fruit and vegetables.
once all is in the sink I sprinkle about 1/4 to 1/2 cup depending on how much is in the sink into the water, I swish around the produce with the salt and water, (kind of like in a needing bread motion).
I guess the salt is like an abrasive because all the sirt and produce starting to turn drops to the bottom of the sink leaving the clean and good on top.
You need to rinse with cold water before using and then what is on the bottom is used in my compost.
Nothing is wated, it is cheap, it is natural and always quick!
I use salt as well, but add some white vinegar to the water. With lettuce, I just swish the leaves in the bowl, then rinse in the lettuce spinner.
I read on SpaarkPeople.com a tip for cleaning produce that has been contaminated with the juice from raw meat. You can spray vinegar and hydrogen peroxide, seperate bottles, on them then rinse. Both ingredients are natural and will kill the bacteria. I keep HP in a seperate darker bottle, to keep the peroxide from loosing strength when the light hits it, and use this combination instead of commercial discenfectants to clean my counters too.
Looks like that was posted in August, but I just saw it and wanted to share this. My doctor once told me about vinegar and hydrogen peroxide to clean with, saying it didnt have the dioxins (sp) that chlorine bleach emits, and like she said, to keep them separate. He said the peroxide can be stored in a regular plastic spray bottle as long as it is stored in the dark, like under the kitchen sink. He said it kills bacteria and some viruses and suggested I use it to clean my kitchen instead of bleach. And yeah he’s a health nut.
I’m starting to sound like a broken record but I love this site. I’m so glad I found it!
Peroxide is a great cleaner. It bleaches things too. I have used it often on my counter top but remember it can bleach out the color of things like bleach. I even use 1/2 water and 1/2 peroxide to whiten my teeth.
I use vinegar too for many different things the only thing about vinegar is it only kills about 80 some per cent of germs and things where bleach kills 99 plus per cent. I guess the way I figure is I would rather risk the slight chance of what ever it is bleach is suppose to do to me then the big chance of what the germs it will kill can do to me. It is a toss up. One thing too most people don’t realize is part of the problem with these things is over using them even over using vinegar or peroxide in the wrong way can be harmful ( trust me I know I accidentally drank a glass of 1/2 water and peroxide thinking it was water – I thought I was going to die and have never been so sick).
Bottom line is I use vinegar and peroxide when I can and when everyone is barfing and having diarrhea every where I pull out the bleach.
Washing my home grown lettuce, I use some salt or vinegar. After a few rinses, if I can still see little “thingies” I take my glasses off.