MBFGC – Day5: Not the Berries I Remember

The answer to yesterday’s question is (D).  Over the course of 11.5 years, we used 10,494 plastic bags to pick up 2,623 pounds or 1.31 tons of safely preserved dog caca.  Congrats to our smartypants readers who answered correctly.

Today I did something pretty out of the ordinary for me.   I planted some strawberry plants in the garden.  Seemed like a green thing to do and they were running a special at our local Home Depot.  Grabbed a bag of organic garden soil too.  On the drive home with my pretty little strawberry plants, I reminisced about when my mom used to take us to the strawberry farms in South Florida where we would pick our own berries.  Mmmm, they were so sweet and delicious.  I probably ate more right off the vine than actually went into my basket.

I also probably went home with a tummy ache, but that’s not what I remember most.  When we went to Oregon last October to spend a month on my aunt and uncle’s farm, I was somewhat disappointed to have missed the peak of the berry picking season.  I was really looking forward to sharing that experience with my urban boys.  Aunt Karen was kind enough to leave some of the late blooming raspberries still on the vine for us to pick and there were still plenty of wild blackberries too.  Turns out my little Santana and I have more in common than I thought. He likes to eat them straight of the vine as well.

Truth be told, until recently I liked the idea of visiting someone else’s garden a whole lot more than growing my own.  When I was in my early 20′s, I would politely listen to my older colleagues go on and on about their gardens, but silently think to myself that gardening was something to do when no other more exciting options were available.  In my early 30′s, I was living in NYC and didn’t have the space to put an extra pair of shoes let alone a garden.  Now that we live in Southern California and have a little more space, it seems like the right time to stick my toe in and test the water.  Last year AJ planted some tomatoes and they turned out better than I expected.

I’ve heard recently that mass produced strawberries tend to have some of the highest levels of pesticide among produce.  I try to buy organic as much as possible, but can’t say that I do so religiously, especially now that we are trying to spend less.  My thought, as naive as this may sound, is that if I washed them well enough, it would be safe to eat.  Turns out that is wrong.  On conventional farms, pesticides are used throughout the growth cycle of the strawberry and are absorbed into the fruit themselves.  The only thing I might have been washing off is a little dirt and fly poop.  I did some more digging and learned that some of the most popular fruits and veggies with the highest pesticide levels include:

• Apples
• Bell Peppers
• Celery
• Cherries
• Grapes (imported)
• Nectarines
• Peaches
• Pears
• Potatoes
• Red Raspberries
• Spinach
• Strawberries

I’m not so sure that I’m going to be able to sleep tonight.  We eat just about everything on this list.  My boys probably eat 2-3 apples a day.  I thought we were doing well, because their favorite snack wasn’t junk food.  It was something I considered healthy.  Come to find out, if we didn’t happen to buy organic, we may have been slowly poisoning them with all the pesticides they may be ingesting.  With their tiny little bodies, it probably doesn’t take a whole lot to do damage.  I don’t want to over-react, but at the same time, I don’t think I can dismiss this as “don’t believe everything you read on the internet.”  I need to do more research, but going forward, I think if we are going to buy any of the twelve items above it’s going to be organic or it’s going to come out of our own garden.

If you want more information, there is a ton out there.  I was overwhelmed rather quickly (which I think can be part of the problem).  One resource I found referenced quite often is the Environmental Working Group.  It publishes several useful guides including The Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides.  If you really want to freak yourself out, try the website What’s on My Food.  Both allow you to download a free app to your iPhone (personally we’re holding out for the free-range organic iPhone).

(Mom, in case you are reading this, I did a quick search on the history of pesticide use on strawberry plantations and it didn’t appear that it was as widespread when you took us picking as it is today.  A steady increase in pesticide usage began occurring in the late 80′s and 90′s, well after you might have taken us – so my third nipple remains a mystery).

–Mick