Question
Cindi Eckert
Since I am eating so many vegetables now cleaning them is really important to me, even the organic ones. Do you have any suggestions on the best method?
Answer
I just take them to the sink and I wash all the dirt off. I have a teeny weenie, uh, food sponge that I use. And, uh, you know, uh, sometimes when I'm feeling scientific, and you might wanna do this with your kids, if they really wanna see residue on food, take an apple, uh, boil up some water and, uh, go to the sink and have a bowl underneath and put a fork in the apple, and then pour the hot water over. And you will be amazed at what you will see in the bowl. There will be debris, there will be residue, there will be wax. It's totally amazing. I don't do that for vegetables though, that I'm going to eat. I just run them under, uh, really cold water. And I keep pointing because my, my faucet is, uh, is over there. But, uh, I, I think that you're smart to, uh, to clean them. Well, and I, I do wanna share one other thing, and I've been meaning to ask, uh, chef Fran if she wants to come with, but, um, in South Philadelphia, there is the Philadelphia produce market, and it is the size of three football stadiums. And a couple of years ago, I took myself on a tour, and really, and truthfully, you would've thought that you were in an operating room because every person handling fruit and vegetables, sorting, picking, packing, et cetera, had, uh, hairnets on, they had gloves on and lab coats. So I think that, uh, we seem to forget about that middle person in, uh, food production. But I was very, very impressed with, um, the food tour that I went on. And I went for specific reason, I was looking for caviar lime caviar. Lime is one of their names. They're a long lime. They're about as big as your finger, and when you pop them open, uh, little buds of, uh, of lime come out. So they call them caviar for that reason. But if you ever have the chance to go visit, um, any place, uh, a produce center, uh, it's fascinating. And I felt very reassured. Not that it didn't remind me that I had to also always, uh, clean all of my vegetables, but, um, cold water.
