Do you check your own vegetables?

amother

Sun, Apr 22 2012, 1:22 pm

amother wrote:

mummiedearest wrote:

I check my own herbs. I don't use soap on produce. if needed, I use vinegar.

for herbs I fill a gallon ziploc with the herbs and water. seal, shake vigorously. remove the herbs, reseal bag. place over white cloth and inspect water. I find the works better than swishing in a bowl, and it's faster.

I tend to buy prechecked lettuce and frozen broc/cauliflower for convenience. I check strawberries myself, but buy frozen if I'm going to cook them.

Can I ask you how you check strawberries?
My Bro in law is a rav hamachshir and spends alot of time on strawberries. He says the bugs crawl into the seeds to hide and come back out later. The only way you can eat fresh strawberries is if you peel them.

I think that strawberries (could be other produce as well) depends on location. In America, the star k and the ou, and maybe others that I don't know about do not require peeling. Just soaking and rinsing. In Israel the rabbanut requires peeling-unless you plan on pureeing or cooking them. Then you just need to soak and rinse (3 times).

I am talking about america. It's sad how many people don't know and can ch"v eat bugs w/out knowing!
My BIL went into Monsey Glatt and there was a huge crate of fresh strawberries. He bought some to check at home. He rinsed, scrubbed, soaked, soaped, etc and still found bugs! He did all tricks in the book, but couldn't get rid of them.

imaima

Sun, Apr 22 2012, 1:41 pm

bamamama wrote:

imaima wrote:

Rav Falk has a sefer on it, too. It describes everything in great detail. I assume it is chumradik, because many practices described by previous posters sound lenient.

Why does it sound like Rav Falk goes to great lengths to make women's lives more difficult? There's kosher and there's obsessive compulsive.

It's not obsessive compulsive. I have checked vegetables by his book and found bugs. I wouldn't have found them if I didn't check so thoroughly.

sarahd

Sun, Apr 22 2012, 2:11 pm

granolamom wrote:

sarahd wrote:

A great way to check dill and parsley is to hold them by the stems and bang them hard on a light colored surface. Whenever I do that in the summer, I find bugs out for a nice stroll on my table (which is why I no longer buy dill and parsley in the summer.) If I don't find bugs on my table, I go on to the soak business, but the banging sure does save a lot of time and vinegar.

so you dont have to soak if no bugs fall out from shaking/banging?
do you still check the individual leaves? or the assumption is that anything in there falls out from banging on a surface? and if that's the assumption, then why do you have to soak if bugs DO fall out?

I dont mind the vinegar but I'd sure like to save some time

I soak it also, but if bugs fall out when I bang it then I just throw the whole thing out and don't bother with the soaking (that's what I'm saving on.)

I don't check it leaf by leaf. Rabbi Falk says that if you bang it and soak it and see no bugs in the water or on your light colored surface, you can use the herb without further checking.

imaima

Sun, Apr 22 2012, 3:13 pm

goodmorning wrote:

imaima, can you post how you check?

Cauliflower - separate into florets, define a central part in each floret, bend it to the side and check if you see black dots. A dot is an insect that lies along a canal. I don't remember if it says to soak, but I don't think the water can go into those canals.

The lettuce - soak leaves in salty or soapy water, check against daylight.

Red cabbage - I divide into quarters, check the three upper leaves of each, if they are clean (they usually are) then use everything.

Green cabbage - don't remember but more complicated than red. He advises to use kohlrabi instead.

I buy frozen herbs, frozen chopped spinach, frozen berries (only use raspberry if it is going to be emulsified).

chani8

Sun, Apr 22 2012, 5:32 pm

amother wrote:

Why? Are we allowed to eat pureed or cooked bugs?

bamamama

Sun, Apr 22 2012, 7:26 pm

amother wrote:

If you really don't want to eat bugs (and other unmentionables), you should stop breathing and sleeping with your mouth open and eating processed food...

I stand by my statement that it IS obsessive compulsive after a point (peeling strawberries? Really?). I mean, do what you want, but I'm going to check according to the Star-K and serve my family all the vitamins and minerals and fiber that veggies and fruit provide. Kol haKavod to those of you who check beyond what's required and still manage to serve a good amount of veggies and fruit to your family.

OOTBubby

Sun, Apr 22 2012, 7:36 pm

bamamama wrote:

amother wrote:

Not everyone holds that what the Star-K says is "what's required". There are other prominent poskim/hechsherim who hold that isn't adequate.

If you want to say, I hold by the Star-K so that is what I do, fine. However, you can't claim that what the Star-K holds is the minimum required by everyone.

TranquilityAndPeace

Sun, Apr 22 2012, 7:50 pm

chani8 wrote:

amother wrote:

Why? Are we allowed to eat pureed or cooked bugs?

Yes, regarding pureed, no, regarding just cooked.

I can take strawberries, raspberries, etc. and L'chatchillah blend them all in the blender without washing or checking them. (Without washing because I bought frozen, washed ones!)

Same with brocolli, spinach, etc, when I make a kugel.

Crushed bugs are no longer considered bugs, halachically.

MaBelleVie

Sun, Apr 22 2012, 8:10 pm

Not to be nitpicky, but I believe there is a difference in terms of blending among different fruits and vegetables, at least according to some opinions. I was told that blending frozen berries is ok, but broccoli is not. Just didn't want anyone to get the impression that its an across the board heter lechatchila Smile

ra_mom

Sun, Apr 22 2012, 8:39 pm

I buy frozen checked broccoli and cauliflower. No way I feel comfortable checking them myself.

Dill and parsley I also try to buy checked. If I can't find checked dill for my chicken soup, I rinse it and then seal it in a Bodek bag before placing it in my soup. If I really can't find checked dill or Bodek bags (only happened once time I think), I strip the dill of their leaves, soak only the stems in soapy water, then wash well and crisp back up in ice water, and use that in my soup.

Strawberries - stem need to be cut off under strong current of water. Because when stem is cut off the worms automatically dive into the strawberry itself before you even have a chance to see them. Then you need to soak for a bit in soapy water.

Rest I either buy checked for convenience, or I check myself if checked is not available.

mummiedearest

Sun, Apr 22 2012, 9:37 pm

re: if there are bugs in the herb water:

redo the whole process. if after the third time the water is buggy, chuck that bunch.

re: strawberries:

I do what r' belsky says (I was taught this before I knew that r'belsky holds this way, but it's nice to have backing Smile

). rinse the strawberries well in a strong stream of water. cut off tops. check outside of strawberries. if there are any holes, cut through the holes and check the insides.

I have found bugs on various bits of produce, so I'm confident in my checking abilities. btw, I've found bugs in garlic in brooklyn. anyone here check garlic? I was quite shocked at the time.

oh, and the herbs I check are usually about to be pureed. however, I find that they generally don't puree to a state of liquid, and the pieces left over after running the blender are bigger than the bugs I find on the produce, so I don't feel comfortable leaving them unchecked.

sky

Sun, Apr 22 2012, 9:52 pm

chani8 wrote:

amother wrote:

Why? Are we allowed to eat pureed or cooked bugs?

I was told pureed is okay (a part of a bug isn't a problem like a whole bug) as long as you would have done regardless of the bug issue.
So I will puree fresh strawberries for a soup but not for a strawberry apple kugel.

I don't think cooking makes a difference.

eschaya

Mon, Apr 23 2012, 12:46 am

I follow the star-K guidelines.
This year a rav from the star-K gave a class in my community about checking bugs... he went through all the rules, but mostly it was a hands on demonstration. He had brought in lots of common fruits vegis, basins for soaking, checking lights, and those strong magnifyers used by those in the diamond industry (forgot what they are called) that it seems mashgichim use. It was really cool; we practiced finding the bugs and got to see what they looked like when magnified... and crawling! Made the whole idea of checking real and worthwhile rather than an annoying and difficult task.

amother

Mon, Apr 23 2012, 12:52 am

eschaya wrote:

How did he say you should check strawberries?

MaBelleVie

Mon, Apr 23 2012, 1:00 am

amother wrote:

eschaya wrote:

How did he say you should check strawberries?

Star k gives clear guidelines on their website. Here is the strawberries link http://star-k.org/cons-vegdetail.php?ID=48

sarahd

Mon, Apr 23 2012, 4:36 am

mummiedearest wrote:

I have found thrips running around in garlic lots of times, which is why I now refrigerate my garlic. They are not hard to see; I found them when I wasn't looking for them.