Organic Vegetables and Bugs

cooklightr

Tue, May 06 2014, 4:16 pm

Hi!

I like to buy organics vegetables and fruits as much as possible for my family even though they are expensive. I have a dilemma with bugs. I recently bought an organic cauliflower and soak it in water with salt and it still had these tiny bugs in it. I then put some dishwashing liquid in a bowl and soaked it again agitating the water. After rinsing several times , still buggy and threw it out. Wasted money and labor intensive with no results. Does anybody regularly purchase organic produce, and how do you deal with the insect issue?

Mrs Bissli

Tue, May 06 2014, 5:08 pm

Can you stick to less problematic/easier to check/no checks needed fruits and veggies for buying organics? Like carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, but skip broccolis, lettuces, spinaches--the latter categories are hard enough to check even when it's non organic.

ectomorph

Tue, May 06 2014, 5:27 pm

It comes with the territory. No pesticides = bugs.

I've bought organic carrots that had no bugs. Unless you have a lot of time and money and energy, I wouldn't bother buying things that are difficult to check even when they're not organic like cauliflower or brocolli - you're just giving yourself a lot of work that may not end up being edible.

spinkles

Tue, May 06 2014, 9:38 pm

I buy mostly organic veggies. When I'm buying things that tend to be buggy, I examine them carefully in the store. For example, my Whole Foods currently has kale that's insanely buggy--like minimum 20 bugs a leaf. But another store has the exact same brand of organic kale, for the same price, but very few bugs. I checked one bunch today and only found about 20 bugs in the whole bunch, which was great! Bugginess varies so much depending on weather conditions when the stuff was picked. It took me just a minute in the store to examine a few leaves and determine that the leaves looked pretty good.

With cauliflower and other veggies that you can't do a quick visual inspection to determine the general bugginess level, I wouldn't buy them.

amother

Tue, May 06 2014, 10:56 pm

there are some guides by the kashrus agencies on how to wash and check for bugs.
for organic.. don't waste your money, they are not organic.
there is a joke in the produce industry: if you are regular you spray during the day, if you are organic during the night.

Kugglegirl

Wed, May 07 2014, 12:46 am

much as I like to buy organic, I find the leafy things to be too buggy.

I buy commercial for leafy things. Even then, there are sometimes buggy lots that have to be tossed. It is annoying to have to toss out something I paid for & then spent time washing & checking.

Even the commercial sometimes has buggy infestations. Esp. in broccoli & cauliflower.
& Organic eggs/brown eggs are pretty much a waste as well. Often fertilized with blood spots!

spinkles

Wed, May 07 2014, 7:25 am

Quote:

for organic.. don't waste your money, they are not organic.

There's a problem with overseas "organic" producers cheating, but this very rarely happens in the U.S. There are regulations in place (residue testing, etc.) and if people were to get a bad name related to cheating they would lose their parnassah. Many organic farmers are very idealistic and dedicated. Do you personally know any organic farmers? I do, and I'm not sure why people would feel comfortable making cynical remarks about people who work so hard to provide chemical-free produce for us.

P.S. Can you explain why the organic kale sometimes has 20-40 bugs per leaf if organic producers are secretly spraying at night?

amother

Wed, May 07 2014, 8:59 am

I know organic wholesalers who sell non organic for organic.
and yes kale will have bugs even when non organic, as well as other plenty of things like strawberry, lettuce, etc. this is the reason there is parnasah for bodek, positive, etc.
if you want healthier produce buy at farmers markets from local growers because the fruit ripens on the tree or plant instead of a truck with sprays

amother

Wed, May 07 2014, 9:42 am

Farmers markets can also have buggy produce. I remember that as a kid we went to Amish town, and my parents stopped at a roadside stand to buy corn fresh from the farm. It was crawling w worms and all of it had to be tossed. Puke

Anon bec I've told this story IRL.