Homemaking Hack {#4}:
How We Clean Our Fruits & Veggies

Years ago, back when the majority of my television viewing was not Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood or P.J. Masks, I used to love watching Rachael Ray. I picked up lots of great tips from her, but one of my favorite tips was her advice to wash and prep your fruits and veggies as soon as you get home from the grocery store. I am not always able to do this, but when I do, I find it makes a huge difference in how smoothly my meal preparation for the week goes. When I am cooking a meal, I love that my fruits and vegetables are ready to go. I've also found that the produce I buy, particularly the fruits, last longer.

If we could fit it into our budget, all of the produce we buy would be organic. Unfortunately, the prices of organic produce are still usually much higher than their chemical-coated alternatives. (Although--once--I did find organic strawberries to actually be cheaper than the regular variety. Oh, that was a happy day!) I want my children to eat lots of fruits and veggies, but I worry about the pesticides they might be consuming. I like this particular process, because I feel like it does a really good job of cleaning the fruit and making them contaminate-free. Further, if I am washing something leafy, like herbs, I can rinse out the salad spinner at the end and spin the leaves to dry them thoroughly and quickly. I also like that I'm cleaning the sink and drain when I dump the used cleaning solution down the sink when I'm finished. 

For a quick description, scroll to the bottom. 🙂

Here's what you'll need:

• fruits and vegetables to be washed
• a salad spinner (the top isn't necessary unless you're washing something leafy) or a bowl with a colander inside
• 8 oz. white vinegar
• cold tap water
• a DROP of dishwashing detergent (not a squirt, a single drop)
• a large kitchen towel, spread out over your counter (Just a warning: If you use a light-colored kitchen towel, it will probably get stained. If this bothers you, I recommend using a darker color.)

Make your cleaning solution inside the salad spinner. Pour 8 ounces of white vinegar into the salad spinner. Add a single drop of dishwashing detergent. (If you accidentally squeeze a few drops in, that's all right, but try to keep it to a drop. Otherwise, your solution will be too sudsy.) Fill the rest of the salad spinner with cold water, about 3/4 of the way full.

Next, add your fruits or veggies.

For this round, I chose to wash the bell pepper first. I placed the pepper into the salad spinner, swirled it around a bit, and set my kitchen timer for 3 minutes:

Since peppers float, I occasionally gave it a little dunk and stir with my hand throughout the duration of the 3 minutes. When the timer went off, I lifted the colander out of the spinner, and ran the produce under cold running water:

When my produce was thoroughly rinsed, I placed it on the kitchen towel and began my next round. I chose to wash the strawberries next, because I also needed to wash green onions, and I didn't want any chance of my strawberries coming out oniony.

I've got a couple tips for washing strawberries, which just happen to be my favorite food, so we consume A LOT of these. A lot. Before adding them to my cleaning solution, I used this little tool to remove the leafy top and the hull. (It's fun [my five-year-old begs to do this job!], makes quick work of prepping the strawberries, and I find that the strawberries are cleaner when I do this step before washing them. Occasionally, we've removed the leaves after washing them, and I've found grit underneath the leaves that I had to pick off.) Here's my other great tip: SAVE that lightweight plastic container in which the strawberries come from the store. (I just learned from a recent trip to Costco that they are called "clamshell" containers. Who knew?!) I wash the container with soap and line the bottom with a folded paper towel and put the strawberries back into it when I'm ready to refrigerate them. The container is designed to keep strawberries fresher longer, and I don't have to dirty one of my other containers. Win-win! (I also do this with blueberries, raspberries, grape tomatoes, and any other produce that comes in this style of container. Do not try to wash the containers in the dishwasher though. They will melt. {Ahem.})

Once the tops were removed from the strawberries, I popped them into the salad spinner. When the 3-minute timer went off, I was careful to remove the strawberries right away. I've found out (the hard way) that if you allow strawberries to soak too long, they will start to get mushy. I rinsed them under cold water, as usual, and placed them on the kitchen towel.

For my third round, I trimmed both ends of my green onions and bent them to fit inside the salad spinner. I allowed them to soak for 3 minutes, rinsed them, and then placed them on the kitchen towel. You've got the idea by now, right?

Here's what it will look like in the end:

You can see my washed strawberry container also drying on the towel.

CAUTION: As your fruits and veggies are drying, they may fall prey to veggie-loving kiddos--blonde ones, in my case. But, if you're like me, you won't really mind. 🙂

Quick Guide to Washing Produce

You'll Need:

• fruits and vegetables to be washed
• a salad spinner (the top isn't needed unless you're washing something leafy) or a bowl with a colander inside
• 8 oz. white vinegar
• cold tap water
• a DROP of dishwashing detergent (not a squirt, a single drop)
• a large kitchen towel, spread out over your counter (Just a warning: If you use a light-colored kitchen towel, it will probably get stained. If this bothers you, I recommend using a darker color.)

Directions:

• To a salad spinner (or a colander inside of a bowl) add 8 oz. white vinegar and one DROP dishwashing detergent. Fill the rest with cold water, until the bowl is about 3/4 full. Stir.
• Add produce to be washed. Make sure to give the produce a spin with your hand or some good dunks to get the solution all over the produce.
• Allow the produce to soak for 3 minutes. (If cleaning something delicate, like berries, remove promptly after 3 minutes. If cleaning something sturdier, like apples, they can remain in the solution longer.)
• Lift the colander and rinse the produce under cold water.
• Lay out fruits and veggies on a towel and allow to dry.
• If you're washing leafy greens, like cilantro or parsley, you can use the salad spinner to dry them. When I'm finished with all my washing, I dump out the cleaning solution {it will look really gross, and you'll be so happy you used this method!}, rinse the bowl, pop the top on the spinner, and dry off the greens in the salad spinner.

{Note: I found this process on a healthy-eating blog. I'm sorry, I looked, but I can't find the original source.}