Have you ever heard of the dirty dozen in the produce world? It’s basically a list that is published every year for the past 13 years by the Environmental Working Group that ranks the pesticide contamination of 48 common fruits and vegetables. If the pesticide levels are high, the produce item can land on the Dirty Dozen list; if the pesticide levels are low, the produce item can land on the Clean Fifteen list.
While the list is normally the same year after year, there is some fluctuation from time to time. This year USDA researchers found a total of 178 different pesticides and pesticide breakdown products on the thousands of produce samples they analyzed. Yowzas. That’s crazy! Here are some other key things they noticed:
- Spinach samples had an average of twice as much pesticide residue by weight than any other crop.
- The most contaminated sample of strawberries had 20 different pesticides.
- Nearly all samples of strawberries, spinach, peaches, nectarines, cherries and apples tested positive for residue of at least one pesticide.
Here are the lists so you know what you need to wash like crazy or maybe soak in a nice vinegar bath before eating, and what fruits and veggies are on the safer end.
The Dirty Dozen
- Strawberries
- Spinach
- Nectarines
- Apples
- Peaches
- Pears
- Cherries
- Grapes
- Celery
- Tomatoes
- Sweet bell peppers
- Potatoes
The Clean Fifteen
- Sweet Corn
- Avocados
- Pineapples
- Cabbage
- Onions
- Sweet peas frozen
- Papayas
- Asparagus
- Mangos
- Eggplant
- Honeydew melon
- Kiwi
- Cantaloupe
- Cauliflower
- Grapefruit
Check out all their findings HERE.
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Quote of the Day “All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible.” ~ William Faulkner
REI Garage Deal of the Day
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After fueling up on Dunkin’ Donuts tea and coffee we headed back to my friend Heather’s house for dinner.
The next day, Heather made me go on a 4 mile hike through the woods to walk the dogs {I’m kidding. She didn’t make me go…. I really needed to go to walk off a pastry {or twenty}.
After the walk… We headed into Boston for the garden show.
I took oodles of photos and I’ll do a proper post about our visit into the big city tomorrow.
Because all I really want to do right now is show you more pictures of the delicious pastries we bought that day. 🙂
Ahhh vacations. They’re the best. Especially when they are filled with good friends and good food. We had a blast on our trip to the east coast and I can’t wait to go back.
I swear I have seasonal affectiveness disorder. I have been dragging all week but saturday was a glorious day, filled with sun and I was full of energy! So I am blaming this week’s mishaps on the SAD. Although I could say it was a successful week. As I promised I avoided TJ Maxx and Marshalls. SO back on track with that but had a little hiccup with Costco.
First let’s start with the normal grocery shopping. At Fred Meyer I spent 83.63. Since it was another no cook week I thought I would have done better . You can see how much I bought. Alot was stuff on clearance, sale and regular everyday foods. We were all out of fruit and milk and I just couldn’t pass up the sale meat for future meals.
Goldfish was a FM ecoupon and I have been using my Baker’s Joy for the last 3 months thinking it was the last squirt with every use. Finally it sprayed no more. I really love this stuff especially for baking. And I know I should have baked my own muffins, I feel guilty about that. The day I shopped this week wasn’t my normal Friday so I couldn’t pick up my FM freebie (Tostito salsa, sweet)! And the shipment of .99 chocolate milk, that was on my list, had not come in yet so I knew I would have to go back.
Fast forward to Friday….. went to pick up my freebie and choco milk and it was like a tracking beam that pulled into that awesome clearance bin. I just could not resist looking through it . I swear it’s like an Easter egg hunt. Look what all I found, sweet but not so because I spent another $19.39 and it should have only been one dollar for the milk.
And I just couldn’t wait for Ms Mavis to get back from her extended vacation. As I mentioned, it was a glorious sunny day yesterday so I go busy on the new chicken pen. First I had to clean up the area where the fence will go, then mapped it out and I looked into renting a gas powered hole digger {around $100 a day}. So decided to see how hard it would be to dig them myself, I have a post hole digger. Before I knew it I had dug all but three, two of those will be for the gate and another which is blocked by a tree trunk that Western Tree Solutions will come back and move for me. That’s 13 holes!!
I was just itching to do more. Hb Hubby came home from work about that time and I convinced him to take me to Home Depot. And there I bought {15} 4×4 8ft post. Exciting! That purchase was $137.69. The nice thing was that I was able to pay cash. All these months as much as I complain about myself and my bad habits, I have managed to save a little nest egg.