dirty dozen

DIRTY DOZEN

remember that movie about those ww2 guys
this isnt about them but its about the foods we eat

for us here at the country n
we do not worry about the dirty dozen at all
since we only grow our foods organically
with no pesticides

if we have pests
we pick them off and throw them in a bucket of
soapy water
when they quit swimming we compost them
my wife she is the best bug grabber ive ever seen
she seems to get some pleasure in disposing of them

we also spray some of them off with rainwater
we may sprinkle bacillus thuringenesis or use a product
called spinosid if caterpillars are involved
if ground based like pill bugs we use diatamaceous earth
sometimes we even sick our chickens and guinea on them

our garden as mentioned before is surrounded about 80%
by our chicken run so that those ladies can eat bugs
as they travel across to the garden

we also introduce ladybugs every year to our garden
they love aphids

then we cover the crops with light row cover to keep some
of those varmints out

all organic of course

we now make our own compost so know that no pesticides etc
are in it or if we buy compost we only use the ladybug composts
from the natural gardener

so at this site www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary.php
they list the dirty dozen plus and the clean fifteen

here are the bad guys listed in order of most contaminated

apples celery cherry tomatoes cucumbers grapes hot peppers
imported nectarines peaches potatoes spinach strawberries
sweet bell peppers
then the plus summer squash kale/collard greens
hate to see them mess up such a good nutritious veggie like kale

then the clean or should we say cleaner veggies fruits
asparagus avocado cabbage cantaloupe sweet corn egg plant
grape fruit kiwi mangoes mushrooms papaya onions pineapple
frozen sweet peas
and lastly

the sweet potato thats the one
that the little girl used in her science experiment where the
nonorganic one wouldnt grow but the organic one did and
the one grown organically at her house really grew well

zucchini hawaiian papaya and sweet corn and soybeans are
the most likely ones to be sold as gmo genetically madified
plants

so i looked at this list
at our grocery store some things are not all available organically
or if they do they may have shelved them too long
we have bought from the bad list
apples celery cherry tomatoes cucumbers potatoes sweet bell peppers
me bad

luckily at the country n we are growing all our lettuce spinach kale
swiss chard broccoli cabbage asian greens carrots beets onions
spinach ourselves so we know they are clean

some veggies that have been grown in fields contaminated by
pesticides even those that havent been available for years still
show up in some veggies as there are still residues left in
some farmers fields
not here at the country n though

i wonder what effect this has on our health
especially to those rapidly growing folks like babies toddlers
and teenagers as these pesticides get deposited in their tissues
it cant be healthy
look what it does to all those rapidly growing insects

we are what we eat you know

the organicgreen gardener