a simple {diy} :: fruit and veggie wash

I wish I lived on 20 acres of organic farmland…

But I don’t.

And I do love where I live…I’m a beach girl. I love our little beach town.

Spring, summer, and fall have the farmer’s markets and u-pick farms full of fresh, local produce here.

And despite being in Michigan with our barren winters, our local grocers have pretty decent selection of conventional and organic produce.

You can’t always buy organic, so when I buy conventional, I’m sure to give them a good washing. Grab a used, empty spray bottle and a few simple (cheap!) ingredients and you can have a great fruit and veggie wash to scrub up all that lovely bounty 🙂

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 empty spray bottle (used up, empty all purpose cleaning bottles work great! And they are free!)

2TB baking soda

2TB lemon juice

1 cup white vinegar

1 cup water

1. Put the baking soda in the bottle first, then add the lemon juice, vinegar, and water slowly (make sure the kids are in view for the cool science experiment!). I like to measure out the water and vinegar in the same 2 cup liquid measuring cup, and pour them in together slow.
2. Gently swirl the bottle around with the top off to get all the gas out and let the fizz subside (do you like how scientific my choice of words is?! To be honest I don’t even remember all the science-y reasons vinegar and baking soda react, but I probably should learn them so I can, ya know, sound like I know what I’m talking about to the girls!)

To wash, just spray your veggies and let them sit a few minutes before scrubbing them up. I usually put my strainer in the sink and toss them in there to soak/drain. When I’m doing a large quantity, like when we went blueberry picking, I make one batch of wash, and soak them in the whole batch in a big bowl.

That’s it!

Here is a list of the 2012 “dirty dozen” and “clean 15” – I try as hard as possible to get the dirty dozen ones in organic.

YOUR TURN!

Are organic fruits and veggies easy to find/affordable where you live? Where are my gardeners out there – give me a shout – I’m quite the novice and experimenting with more this year since I’m finally not tending after newborns, and I’m not working this summer 🙂

It’s back to school week on SIMPLE this coming week! Make up some veggie wash, and grab up some of your favorite veggies to dip from your Farmer’s Markets this weekend – I’ll be back on Monday with the yummiest, EASIEST homemade Ranch type veggie dip to pack in your kiddos lunches this fall!