I’ve always had a pretty high standard for the produce that comes off of our farm. My boss at my previous farm was meticulous in his expectations of the farm’s produce that we delivered to our CSA members. I expected clean and fresh produce when I was working and cooking in restaurant kitchens. So now that I have my own operation, my standard remains pretty high. We triple wash our greens. We soak our roots. We cool everything as soon as possible. I assumed that other farms had the same goals. But this morning as I was scanning my twitter feed I found this post about making a DIY produce wash. I encourage our members to wash their produce before they use it not because I don’t think our produce is clean, but because I think that it’s an important practice to do consistently when preparing produce.
But what caught my attention was AJ’s opening paragrah: “My CSA share is getting bigger and bigger by the week, which means lots and lots of produce washing. It’s funny, you’d think that straight from the farm would mean less cleaning, since everything’s local, organic, blah blah blah. But that’s really not the case. I find more dirt and critters in my CSA fruits and vegetables than I’ve ever seen in any produce at the grocery store. You don’t even want to know what I found in one of my peaches this past week… seriously.”
So I’m left wondering, do people associate “straight-from-the-farm produce to be covered in dirt and insects?” What do you think?
It think everyone can easily associate local farm produce and organic as clean, if only for the sole fact that pesticides and hormones are not used.
However, if the farm one is getting their produce from doesn’t have the same cleaning practices and standards as you, people could begin to think of straight-from-the-farm produce as “dirty”. Ultimately, it becomes the local farmers’ responsibility to break that stigma….which, unfortunately may not be easy if you’re the only one with higher cleaning practices.
Hopefully, as local farming grows, so will the overall standards for cleaning it.
Thanks for your thoughts, Steph. Do you, as a consumer, feel like the cleanliness of produce affects your impression of a farm or local producer?
This is an interesting question, and one I honestly haven’t put much thought into. The cleanlyness at least. I for one don’t mind dirt, we ingest small amounts, and some would say americans need to have more in our diets. As far as insects, I think I’m probably more forgiving on this, I don’t want a load of infested produce coming home, but if I found an insect in a piece of produce, it’s not the end of the world. I think I give a bit of credit to farmers who choose to limit or not use pesticides and round up. If something slips by, I understand.
That being said, farmers who make the tough decisions and produce clean, healthy, food, are pretty impressive.
Hey Dan, Thanks for your comments. I hope kept the dirt and insect ratio down for you this year.
Pretty much anything that comes from nature that isn’t washed is dirty. It’s the way things are. If we were less “developed,” we probably wouldn’t care one bit that the carrot I pulled out of the ground is covered in soil. I might brush it off a little bit, but mostly I’ll just eat it.
Cuyler- I find it a bit amusing when I have folks come out to the farm for a visit and I offer them a carrot or salad turnip right from the soil. A few will brush it off a bit before eating it. Most will take a minute or two to clean it off. And a few will just hold on to it with a look of, “aren’t you going to wash this first???” I can understand all of those perspectives. To be honest, I’m a little weary of eating a bit of soil from a farm where I don’t know their production practices. There are certainly some chemicals that are commonly used in agriculture that I would not want anywhere near my digestive tract. But at our farm, or the other farms that I have good relationships with, I have little hesitation of a little soil with my veggies.
Yeah, when you offered me the turnip, I just brushed off the big clumps of dirt I saw. I would be surprised if it turned out you were using harsh chemicals.
When I had a weekly box from door to door organic, I washed and cooked an artichoke only to find a huge centipede crawling out of it on my plate. Similar thing happened in a salad I made for my mother-in-law for her birthday. I canceled shortly after. Dirt, I’m not worried about at all, I can wash it just fine. I was a bit grossed out by the bugs I could not find in the washing process though.
If you have time, I’d love to see a post on the chickens and your thoughts on the animal side of food production, specifically as regards naming and killing them.
About 15 years ago, we ran by Whole Foods and got some snacks on our way to the beach. Halfway through the peach, a creature crawled out of the pit. It wasn’t anything I had ever sat eyes upon before. Since so many of my friends are live-n-let live vegans, I walked it the 50 feet or so to the trash can and dropped it in. That freakin’ thing had a GPS in it! It had crawled all the way back to my beach chair. I know this because I tracked the trail backwards! Amazed I tried the experiment again. This time relocating the pit. Sure enough. It was GPSing to the pit. 3rd time I left the pit in the can and it stayed. Lesson…whatever we grow, some critters are going to consider it home. Anything strong enough to kill them will kill us too.
I hope your harvest was plentiful this year. As you know, Texas didn’t do so well. Either way congrats, I know you have one more harvest coming this year. When it comes, don’t forget pics! I’d like to set my old eyes on one fresh sprout before death!
The other post city/country is an international issue. About 6 mos ago on Charlie Rose, the diplomats from China were explaining their rural cousins were uneducated. My jaw dropped. I had to rewind my DVR and make sure I had heard it right. Because it would be just wrong to accuse a nationality of such stupidity if I had misheard them. Luckily I can leave this one to nature. In a couple of generations the rural PHDs will outnumber the urban ones. Plus the country girls, no matter where they were born, always have that sweet disposition, butterfly eyes and sideways smile that sets us straight!
Tell that pretty Shannon girl, not to name chickens, that’s just asking for heartbreak. Centipedes are God’s way of keeping MIL from visiting too often…LOL!