I wish that we could get all of our fruits and veggies straight from a farm and onto our table. Unfortunately, not only does our location in the US make that difficult during certain seasons but there are also times where we are either hindered by time or financial considerations. Sound familiar? I’m willing to bet most people can relate to this on at least some level!
For those reasons, I’ve always been a fan of using a fruit and vegetable rinse on our store bought produce (even organic…apparently it is allowed to spray pesticides on organic produce during transportation) .
Like many things, I used to by the versions from the grocery store but then I got to thinking about how I was spraying more chemicals onto things I was trying to get chemicals off of. Now that just seems a bit silly, no?
(Plus, when you compare the price savings between this and what I used to get from the store, I can put that money towards high quality ingredients instead!)
This recipe has outperformed all store-bought fruit and vegetable rinses I’ve ever gotten. Not only do I feel completely comfortable in how clean and chemical-free in makes my produce but it takes just a few minutes to whip up!
Ingredients:
- 1 cup boiled distilled (preferable) or tap water, cooled to room temperature
- 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar (I like Bragg’s ACV)
- 1/3 cup white vinegar
- 8-10 drops tea tree oil
essential oil
- 5 drops lemon essential oil
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Steps:
1. Boil your water, pour it into a mixing bowl or jar, and then allow to cool until room temperature.
2. Once the water has cooled, add the apple cider vinegar and the white vinegar. Stir well.
3. Add in the tea tree oil and lemon essential oil and mix well again.
4. Decant into a spray top bottle and store by the sink.
You can use this rinse in two ways:
1. Place produce in a colander, spray with the homemade fruit and vegetable rinse, and wash off well with water.
2. Fill a large mixing bowl with water, add a 1/4-1/3 cup of the fruit and vegetable rinse, and then add in your produce. Let soak for several minutes and then use your hands to rub the fruit and vegetable skin well. Finally rinse everything off with running water.
The reason I use both ACV and white vinegar is because of their different acid compositions. If you don’t want to deal with the hassle, you can just use one of the other. I also boil the water ahead of time or used distilled so that bacteria is less likely to grow in the spray…though with the vinegars and the tea tree oil, it’s much less likely to begin with.
XOXO,
You logic is unassailable. Why spray chemicals on to something you are trying to free from chemicals.
So true…and feels good to eat something you feel so great about!
Reblogged this on One Regular Guy Writing about Food, Exercise and Living Longer and commented:
Here is a simple solution to protecting yourself against the pesticide plague sprayed on our fruits and veggies.
Just a couple of questions: Why do you need two kinds of vinegar? Why distilled water when you are just going to rinse off with tap water anyway? Tea tree oil is a disinfectant and in fact I found out recently I react badly to it when it’s applied to an open wound. Not so sure it’s a great thing to be rinsing my food in…
I just rinse in lots of water – but perhaps a little vinegar added might help with greasy residues. I’ll try that!
I use the two different kinds of vinegars because I prefer the smell of them combined better than I like the over-powering smell of each individually (but that’s just a personal preference) and for the different enzyme profiles they contain. But certainly, you can just use one vinegar or the other and it works just fine (all this fancy mixing was why I called this rinse “deluxe”!).
I recommend using distilled water in many homemade recipes because it often helps keep “visitors” from growing in your creations…so it really doesn’t have much to do with the function of this rinse at all but rather how well it keeps. I think it’s less important in this recipe since you’re adding vinegar to it but I figure it’s better to be safe. (Full disclosure, I usually just use boiled tap water so I often put it as an option in my recipes but that’s a decision I’ve made for myself based on comfort level.)
As far as the tea tree oil is concerned, I definitely think it’s best to not include it if you’ve ever had a bad reaction to it. However, I do think putting the tea tree oil in a rinse to disinfect your produce and then washing it off is different than putting the oil directly into an open wound. But again, it’s completely up to you if you decide to use it…the rinse still works well with just the vinegar(s)!
Happy cleaning! 🙂