0:13

Welcome back to The Beat podcast. We are

0:15

back for day two with Victoria and last

0:17

episode we talked about food safety and all

0:19

the stuff that might be on your produce

0:21

that you don't really like to think about,

0:23

but it's there, it's real. So let's talk

0:25

about how to safely clean that produce, how

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to store it so we can actually enjoy

0:30

it properly. So Victoria, last time I mentioned

0:32

that I like to rinse my

0:34

produce and then just eat it. Is there

0:36

anything wrong with that? Am I safe? What's the

0:38

deal? Consider you do

0:40

have chickens in your garden. I would

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owe it and keep in mind, nothing

0:45

is a hundred percent. It's all about

0:47

mitigating the risk and for

0:49

somebody healthy like yourself, you'll probably

0:51

be fine, but there's a chance of

0:54

cross contaminating to somebody who may be

0:56

immunocompromised. Whether you have grandparents

0:58

or parents or maybe a young toddler, it's

1:00

very just important to keep these things in

1:03

mind. Okay. I think that's actually

1:05

a really nice introduction baseline, right?

1:07

It's to think about like,

1:09

it might have not been a problem for you

1:11

in the past because you're fine, but you

1:14

might have to consider younger children, maybe in

1:16

the future or elderly parents or anything

1:18

in between. So I think that's a great baseline to

1:20

start. Well the other

1:22

thing let's keep in mind is

1:25

with cross-contamination of a lot of

1:27

foodborne illnesses and many

1:29

of the major ones that we've seen

1:31

resulted in deaths here in our country,

1:33

it was never that some of

1:36

these children, the ones I'm thinking

1:38

of exactly, never actually consumed the

1:40

product themselves. It was through cross-contamination

1:42

that they end up getting sick

1:44

and eventually. So it may be

1:46

something that the toddler or your

1:49

elderly grandfather is not

1:51

consuming themselves, but you then hence through

1:53

using the same bathroom and maybe not

1:56

being clean or a countertop could then

1:58

affect that. That's very important to

2:01

note that necessarily you don't have to eat

2:04

what has been compromised. So

2:07

now we have like a little bit

2:09

of baseline background. So now let's do

2:11

a hypothetical. I go outside and I

2:13

pick a bunch of tomatoes, maybe

2:15

I grab a cucumber, some lettuce, wanting

2:17

to make a salad. Like what's my

2:20

process to best wash that for my best

2:22

results basically? Well number one, we know that

2:25

you've washed your hands because you don't use gloves, number two.

2:28

Yes. Let's think about

2:30

the container that you are putting them in. Is

2:32

it a container that sits out in the garden

2:34

that you put all your garden produce in? It

2:36

is. It

2:38

is a harvest basket that I always leave

2:40

outside and I never clean. Yes. Do

2:43

you throw, you put it in the dishwasher? So that's

2:45

number two. Okay. It's

2:47

just, believe me, after this you're going to

2:50

be, I'm going to stay in your mind, is ensuring

2:53

that's clean. Bring it into

2:55

your dishwasher, washing it with some soap and

2:57

hot water, some disinfectant on a regular basis

2:59

and before you put food in it. Number

3:02

two is, do you dump then all

3:05

of it in your kitchen sink to

3:07

rinse it off? No, I will

3:09

do all my rinsing. I'll

3:12

give you the honest way that I do it. I

3:15

take my harvest basket, I walk

3:17

over, I take my hose, I blast it with

3:19

a bunch of water right off the bat. Then

3:22

I bring it inside on a clean

3:24

colander and then I will actually rinse it under the

3:26

sink in my kitchen. Usually just water. Maybe

3:28

I'll just like rub it if it looks like it needs

3:30

it. And then the lettuce, I'll

3:32

soak in water and then I'll spin it afterwards.

3:35

That's my basic procedure for cleaning produce as

3:37

is. Well, it's good that you're not

3:40

throwing into the sink because our sink harvests a lot

3:42

of bacteria. Oh yeah. I don't mess with

3:44

the sink at all. So always a clean bowl. The

3:46

other thing I was going to ask you

3:48

this year is that you're cutting your produce

3:50

with. Do you have specific shears? I have

3:53

specific shears just for my herbs and my

3:55

lettuces just because, and that

3:57

gets washed every single time I use it. So

4:00

your shears, is these the same ones

4:02

that you're cutting things around the garden? Yes.

4:05

In general, it will be whatever is near me. Uh,

4:08

and then oftentimes it'll be

4:10

my pocket knife. If I'm collecting like some

4:13

lettuce, maybe I'm not collecting the whole plant or off

4:15

it more often than not, honestly, I'm just ripping it

4:17

off the plant. I'm just taking my hand, just

4:20

popping that tomato off or just twisting the lettuce out

4:22

of the ground and then cutting the roots off. Um,

4:25

but yeah, that's basically what I'm doing. So I

4:27

don't have a separate set of shears, but I

4:29

actually like that idea for herbs a lot in

4:31

particular, um, a scrub brush, a

4:34

scrub brush that's used solely for washing your

4:36

vegetables that you put in. This is the

4:38

dishwasher to disinfect. The only reason I'm saying

4:40

a dishwasher, you there's other ways, there's hot

4:42

water ways of cleaning it, but for us,

4:44

we just default to the easiest thing possible.

4:47

Um, I do recommend scrubbing, whether it looks

4:50

clean, it's not what we can see. That's

4:52

actually could be harmful. Um,

4:54

we want to scrub that as for lettuce. It's

4:56

with anything I keep a spray bottle of vinegar.

4:59

So it's

5:01

a great disinfectant, um, especially during COVID

5:03

when we couldn't get other things, that's

5:05

what I was cleaning everything

5:07

with spraying it down and letting

5:09

it sit, you can actually soak it in

5:12

a vinegar solution and water as well. Um,

5:15

I use, and I don't know, this is where

5:17

it defaults you. I use salt as well, because

5:19

I feel the little bugs just tend to float

5:21

up like the dead sea. Um,

5:24

Oh yeah. A nice mixture of salt on there.

5:26

Cause I feel like then I can see

5:28

what's coming off of my plants and the slugs

5:30

as well, but I do let it, let

5:32

it sit and let it sit for a few

5:34

minutes. I know we're all in a hurry, but

5:37

don't beat rush. And then once again, soak it

5:39

again with the tomatoes and cucumbers. I always,

5:41

um, peel my cucumbers just cause I have picky

5:43

children. Um, and then

5:45

because the ones you get from the grocery store,

5:48

but make sure to use a scrub brush, even

5:50

if you can't see anything and I, and I

5:52

just spray it directly, spray it directly on the,

5:54

on everything. Um, even on my citrus that

5:56

you keep in a nice bowl and then you eat

5:58

while I'm not eating the skin. but you're

6:00

touching the skin and you're it's dripping

6:03

and the juice is going on the

6:05

outside. So vinegar is very important. I

6:08

think it's just a great go-to. It's natural.

6:11

I have two things there. First of all, Cher, I actually

6:14

remember reading stories about like, for example,

6:16

Chipotle when they made guacamole, they got

6:18

salmonella and it turns out it's because

6:20

they weren't washing the avocados. And so

6:23

when they cut the avocados, the

6:25

skin went into the fruit and then

6:27

they made guacamole and that's how it got

6:29

contaminated. So it's definitely like possible. I've definitely

6:32

heard that story before. Cut

6:36

fruit is another one that I tried to

6:38

avoid from the grocery store.

6:40

I do because I

6:42

do wash even people like watermelon. How

6:44

many are you just cutting into the

6:46

watermelon? No, I rinse it off first and

6:49

then just give it a little scrub. Yeah,

6:51

just spray with a little vinegar. Sorry about

6:53

that. Make sure that it's more than just washing

6:58

it. A couple of things

7:00

about the vinegar is it won't make your produce

7:02

taste like vinegar. It won't make it taste weird.

7:04

I've done it. It's totally fine. Don't worry about

7:06

that. The other nice thing about the salt and

7:09

vinegar bath is especially for

7:11

things like if you've ever grown homegrown

7:13

broccoli or cauliflower, they got a lot of

7:15

nooks and crannies. And when you put

7:17

them in that solution, like you said, caterpillars

7:19

will just float away. Even things like aphids

7:22

will actually just kind of let go because

7:24

they can't handle it. So they're just going

7:26

to essentially float off and then you'll end

7:28

up with clean produce. So not only is it good

7:30

at cleaning other contaminants, but you're totally right. Like if

7:32

you've ever had that kind of broccoli where

7:35

you're like, man, I want to eat it so bad,

7:37

but there's like enough aphids in there that I don't

7:39

feel comfortable. Hit it with a little

7:41

bit of that vinegar and salt water solution. They'll all

7:43

disappear and you'll end up with your

7:45

beautiful homegrown broccoli. So I think that's

7:48

definitely a great general cleaning solution

7:50

across the board. And then

7:52

harvesting shears. I think the

7:55

having a nice set that you could use for

7:57

herbs in particular, things that you're using all the

7:59

time. where you're eating a lot of the plant

8:01

itself and it's delicate. And I

8:03

think you said that you even throw yours into a dishwasher every

8:05

once in a while, just to keep them clean. And

8:08

it also, mine allow me to, it

8:11

has a side thing to be able to like

8:14

cut the herbs, like the parsley or the thyme,

8:16

and all the side of the shear that I have, and

8:18

I have two pair. So I know which

8:21

one, and after I do it, and I just, it

8:23

goes straight into the sink as if I just use

8:26

a dirty dish. Very cool. And

8:28

in terms of like preserving our harvest, let's

8:31

like, on the most basic note,

8:34

let's say something like lettuce. Let's

8:36

say I just harvested ahead of lettuce. How do

8:38

I, if I don't want

8:40

to eat it right now, but I need to harvest it and store

8:42

it in my fridge, what are some suggestions

8:44

you have for people at home? You

8:46

know, as a society, we tend

8:49

to delay things

8:51

and we come home from the grocery

8:53

store and we tend to throw everything

8:56

into our refrigerator. What

8:58

I would highly recommend, if possible,

9:00

is ensuring that anything that goes

9:02

into your refrigerator is cleaned. I

9:06

started this when I first had children

9:08

because I wanted my children to be

9:10

able to just go and grab the

9:12

vegetables. My kids are huge vegetable eaters.

9:16

It was designed that way from a young age

9:18

of what I introduced to them. They did not

9:20

get fruit until much later because

9:22

it's delicious. But

9:25

I wanted to be able for them to just

9:27

go into the refrigerator and just grab whatever and

9:29

it was okay to eat. Also having

9:31

a separation on how you keep bins, those

9:35

clear bins. Now we're saying like everybody

9:37

having these compartments in the refrigerator because

9:40

of organization, being able

9:42

to keep things separate and

9:44

already washed. Your meats, just think about

9:46

it. Your meats are not only, they're

9:48

wrapped and they're sitting there, but they're

9:51

also sitting on top of other meats

9:53

in the grocery store of just wiping

9:55

that down and ensuring that it is

9:57

in a closed bin. that

10:00

then you can get. So it's not like

10:02

it's going to drip on anything or your

10:04

lettuce or tomato is just keeping that separate

10:07

and lower on

10:09

the shelves if possible, because then the higher

10:12

than you're preventing anything from like tripping down

10:14

as well. And then just

10:16

wiping those down of keeping that

10:18

safely. Now remember when it comes

10:20

to bacteria, it's all about

10:23

your water content. So

10:25

with your lettuces, I always liked

10:27

everything wash and I tend

10:29

to use a paper towel to wrap them

10:31

in before putting them into a container. It

10:35

does stay fresh. It's actually stayed

10:37

fresh for like three weeks, shockingly,

10:39

because I've opened it up and

10:41

I'm like, wait, this is this

10:43

lettuce is fantastic. Yeah,

10:47

actually, that's a great tip for cucumbers. Also,

10:49

if you just put it even just a

10:51

sheet of paper towel in the bag with

10:54

your cucumbers, they will last probably twice as

10:56

long just because of that moisture, not

10:58

being able to sit up on the actual vegetable,

11:00

which then leads to a potty. So

11:03

in general, I actually would encourage

11:06

this in the past when we used to

11:08

get a CSA box before the

11:10

garden really started producing a bunch, what

11:12

we would do is we set up an outdoor sink, we

11:15

got all the produce and we washed it all,

11:17

laid it on clean towels, let it dry, and

11:20

then put it all in the fridge. And that's

11:23

kind of something we haven't done

11:25

as well lately, just because there's just so much

11:27

going on. Like you said, like everything

11:29

is busy, there's always something to distract you.

11:32

But I think that's a great, great

11:34

idea, something to practice across the board, keeps

11:37

your fridge cleaner, keeps your produce lasting longer. And

11:39

especially if you have kids, I love that example because

11:41

they will just go in there and they will just

11:44

eat something. They're not thinking about where has

11:46

this carrot been? Who touched it? Was it on

11:48

the ground? Was it in the grocery store? They

11:50

just want to eat a carrot. So I

11:52

love that idea, especially if you have children keeping your

11:54

produce clean in there and making it a policy that

11:56

just go in there and eat whatever you want and

11:58

it's fine. So. So that's awesome.

12:03

Anything you want to add onto that? You know, especially for,

12:05

for so two things, especially for children. What

12:07

I found is if you have things already

12:09

cut up, I purchased

12:11

this container and I can't seem to find

12:13

it again. It has different compartments. So

12:16

all I would need to do is take out the

12:18

tray because of course, having being a

12:20

food scientist, you have picky kids that don't

12:22

like the same thing. So they

12:24

had all their different fruits and vegetables laid out.

12:26

So I could just take it down and they

12:29

can just open one container. So you're not, you're

12:31

more likely to eat more if you're

12:33

not having to be like, I want blue berries,

12:35

but I also want carrots and you're just opening

12:37

one thing and everything's washed and cut up into

12:40

sizes that they like. It's

12:42

one of the things that I would recommend.

12:47

Well that was really interesting. I think I

12:49

will probably be thinking about a little

12:51

bit more and maybe starting up my own little spray bottle

12:53

with vinegar. Do you have like a

12:56

dilution or like a ratio

12:58

off the top of your head by

13:00

chance? You know, because I use it,

13:03

I use a spray bottle for mine and

13:06

I spray the, I spray onto the

13:08

actual produce and then I just

13:10

pour some about a quarter of a cup into

13:12

the water. But because I spray it directly on,

13:14

I make sure it stays on, but there is

13:16

a direct 5% vinegar. I

13:19

do it. I do it direct because I keep it under.

13:21

It's just easier for me to pour and then,

13:24

and then I fill it with water and

13:26

then I usually, I spray it directly onto the produce

13:28

because I feel like it, it's the best. No,

13:32

that makes total sense. Well, that's super fascinating.

13:34

I will definitely then start a 5% vinegar

13:37

spray bottle to keep things clean. And

13:39

on the next one, we're going to be

13:41

talking about actually choosing garden products with safety

13:44

in mind because you don't know what

13:46

you're going to get. So we'll get into it a

13:48

little bit, but I'm looking forward to that conversation on

13:50

the next one. If

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