Cleaning Fruits and Vegetables Naturally

Before you take that first bite on that apple, before you open up that banana served on your table, before you peel those lovely oranges straight from the market, before slicing those tomatoes for your salad, washing them is a must.

Just like washing your hands before eating, it is essential that we wash our fruits and vegetables before we serve and eat. It doesn't matter whether they come from the public markets, the supermarkets, your neighborhood green grocer or straight from your backyard garden, clean food saves a lot of headaches. For starters, there's dirt settling on them while being transported and you can't be too sure if the containers or the people who handled your fruits and veggies have sterile hands. Those alone can be a cause of concern. Add up the fertilizers, pesticides and chemicals to hasten ripening like kalburo, they will end up in your bodies instead with water in the drain of your sink.

Running water through your fruits and vegetables aren't enough. Even if you scrub them, you're going to need a little help. Traditionally, the people in charge of our kitchens are putting salt in water to help in cleaning, but since salt doesn't have surfactant properties, some stuff are left behind. Washing them with bath soaps or detergents isn't advisable as these chemical cocktails leave behind residue that aren't good for eating. Besides, wouldn't it be strange to serve a garden salad that smells like your bathroom soap or your laundry detergent?

Well, there's always a safer alternative, and these are natural soaps. There's plenty of natural soaps in the market nowadays, just make sure that what you'd be using are 100% natural because if its not, you'd end up eating the chemical residues left behind. Choose a soap made from fruit or seed oils, whether bar or liquid soap, although natural liquid soaps are easier to use for this application. They don't leave any harmful residues and since they're made from natural sources, they're as good as edible. Just mix your natural soap with water, add some salt and immerse your fruits and vegetables, scrub a bit and rinse well, they're ready to serve and with less worries. 

If you're cleaning root crops like potatoes, ginger, and everything that comes in close contact with the soil, soak longer so that the earth left in the crevices and indents will soften, but it will still need a bit of scrubbing. This is important especially if you're planning to boil or bake your potatoes and serve them unpeeled.

We're sharing our natural vegetable cleaning recipe and we only use Old Fashioned Soap, Common Table Salt and Water. Sometimes we add Tea Tree Oil to make sure all bacteria are taken care of. The soap makes dirt and other debris detach from your fruits and vegetables, while the salt, aside from its anti-bacterial and anti-fungal actions, helps in enhancing your leafy vegetables and retaining that freshness look and its "crunchiness." We use our Peppermint Liquid Old Fashioned Soap because it is a combination of soaps from Olive Oil and Virgin Coconut Oil. Any soap made with coconut oil cleans really well because good cleansing is their inherent property. The Peppermint Essential Oil also helps in eliminating microorganisms and the smell isn't too strong.

2-3 tablespoons of Casa de Lorenzo Peppermint Liquid Old Fashioned Soap

2 tablespoons of Common Table Salt (non-iodized better)

4 cups of water

When you mix salt, soap and water, the solution will turn whitish. This is perfectly normal. Remember to rinse well your fruits and vegetables before serving or processing. Order Casa de Lorenzo Peppermint Liquid Old Fashioned Soap thru our website http://www.thecasadelorenzo.com/p/ordering.html or send us an email at order@thecasadelorenzo.com

Enjoy and eat fruits and vegetables worry free!