How Ya Like Them Apples?

I went apple picking this weekend, so I was sans technology this past weekend. Despite having lived in the Big Apple for 12 years, I had never done it before. It was so much fun to sit with my family in the aisle between the granny smiths and the fujis and grab to our hearts content - every now and then trying to juggle a few. I noticed while I was at the hotel that I wasn't thinking too much about water when I realized I had kept the water running for the entire duration of my shower. I collected myself before brushing my teeth, so I'd like to think that my newfound focus is something that stays with me wherever I go. I know that my kid is on the right track, after going potty he asked me, "am I going to flush?" I told him no. Poor kid. He does so love flushing a toilet.

Before I get onto the topic of fruit - something I thought I would focus on today since I spent the weekend surrounded by it, not to mention occasionally getting hit in the head with a piece due to poor juggling skills - I want to update you on the coke bottles in my toilet tank. We are having a problem. (Of course, anyone reading this blog for the first time may think that having Coke Bottles in my toilet tank IS the problem. Hahaa!) They are not staying in place. So every now and then, they will float over to the thingamajig that opens to let the water run down - thereby wasting I-don't-even-want-to-think-about-how-many gallons of water until I notice. So I have taken them out. Has anyone else tried this method of saving water in your toilet and had this problem. Is there something I can get to make it stick? Anyone? Hello out there? Am I really going to have to go to home depot and ask them how I'm supposed to keep Coke Bottles from floating around in my toilet tank. Sigh... to be continued... back to our regularly scheduled fruit...

So, we have about a kabillion apples. My son has eaten half a kabillion already so we've already made quite a dent in the bag. THis has left me thinking a lot about washing fruit. Remember Mike Brady on the Brady Bunch? I remember that he used to grab an apple out of the kitchen and rub it on his chest a couple of times before taking a bite. I always wanted to do this, but my mother always insisted on washing the fruit before I ate it. I just didn't understand why. Of course, now I know it was probably because she didn't want me to end up glowing in the dark from all the pesticides. I have this same fear with my kid. Oh, how I worry about whatever is laying on top of that fruit. Of course, now we buy organic fruits and veggies. Occasionally, if there is no organic option, I buy what is available, but the majority is pesticide free. So, as I have been scrubbing these apples, watching the water run over them, I have been thinking about how necessary and effective this actually is.

You know that we are bombarded with way to much information when you Google "wash fruit" and you get thousands of results. To be honest with you, everything I have read so far says that you really should wash fruit. (Because you know I was looking for someone to say, don't bother!) But there is no doubt that running the water over any fruit wastes water. So here's what I'm thinking. One option is to take a bowl and soak the fruit. This way the water is not running and running and... you get the picture. But the other option is to get a fruit/veggie wash such as, well, Veggie Wash. For all of you go getters who's world rotates a little slower than mine and have the time to make your own, there are really simple recipes out there for all natural fruit and veggie washes, like the one at re-nest.com that is made of pretty basic ingredients.

If you look it up, there are sites that will tell you that you should even wash the fruit that have an inedible peel, because you get pesticides on your hands when you touch them and they can then get on the fruit. One way to solve this problem is to buy organic fruits and vegetables. Okay, so if you wash it and miss a spot, you could eat a speck of dirt or maybe a bug (gag!) But, if I'm really honest, I would rather eat that than one drop of pesticide, even if it's on a juicy red apple!