How Does Your Produce Grow?

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How Does Your Produce Grow?

On May 13, 2010, In Healthy Kids

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Pesticides. They may help keep the bugs away but they are not something we want to be ingesting ourselves. Inevitably though, pesticides find their way into the produce. Even when we wash them it’s not possible to completely get rid of pesticide residue. That’s one of the reasons why it’s important to buy pesticide-free as often as possible.

Want to read more about getting rid of pesticides? The Get the Junk Out Carnival over at Kitchen Stewardship is covering the topic of pesticides this week! Read all about how to “Get the Pesticides Out” on Katie’s blog and then hop over to Heavenly
Homemakers for details on growing a pesticide-free garden yourself. Plus there’s a giveaway for some organic gardening supplies!

Also – you might want to familiarize yourself with the updated Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce put out by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) for 2010. I was intrigued to notice a few changes to the list from last year:

New to the Dirty Dozen: Blueberries, Spinach and Potatoes

Off the Dirty Dozen: Lettuce, Carrots and Pears

New to the Clean 15: Cantaloupe, Grapefruit and Honeydew Melon

Off the Clean 15: Tomatoes, Broccoli and Papaya

Now this doesn’t mean you should immediately change your shopping habits. The list changes a bit with each new year of data and just because something is OFF the Dirty Dozen doesn’t mean it is pesticide free. In fact, if you look at the full list of the 49 fruits and veggies tested, lettuce is the 13th worst item and carrots are the 15th.

How do you manage pesticides in your diet? Do you use the Dirty Dozen & Clean 15 lists? Do you have a pesticide-free home garden? Do you purchase a CSA?

I tend to focus on the fruits & veggies that I buy most often and buy those organic almost all the time – like apples and carrots (yes, even though carrots are off the dirty dozen!) As for the rest, I buy organic as often as possible but if I have to grab something conventional I don’t sweat it too much.

In the summer, we have a small home garden where we experiment with different things and get the kids involved. My husband just built me a new raised bed for Mother’s Day!! And we also just joined a new CSA. It’s called Common Harvest and it’s based in Osceola, WI. I’m super excited to be part of this CSA that has been around for 20 years!! And of course, I’ll hit the farmer’s markets now and then when I need to supplement. Clearly, it’s much easier to eat pesticide-free in the summer than in the winter, at least here in Minnesota.

{image from RaeA’s photostream on Flickr}