Nutrition Action Article

You may not be able to see the numbers on the article below unless you enlarge the page. Its from the latest Nutrition Action Health Letter which we get in the mail. You can go to www.cspinet.org to read it on line, or to get on their mailing list. Also, a link to the data is Here. As we head into peach, apple and pear season its important to remember that they have the highest pesticide levels of any fruit and vegetables. This is because they have to be sprayed so many times. Basically you should avoid the top block, the "Dirty Dozen" unless you can verify that they have been grown organically without pesticides. You can be sure that anything imported is loaded with these toxic substances. It will be interesting to see if there is any follow-up at all to the latest China import problems beyond a few reporters going over to have a look around. The small fruits are not quite as bad, they mostly require fungicides after harvest to preserve them during shipment. Needless to say, none of our fruits and vegetables have any pesticides or fungicides on them. Thus they are not as "ornamental" as you might see in the grocery store. For ex, a few spots on sweet peppers. But for the informed consumer, a couple of marks on a tomato or pepper is far better than ingesting pesticides, the full effect of which can not even be pinned down. Its just better to avoid them altogether. Hope to see you at the market Sat AM. All varieties of tomatoes are in now. If you are interested in larger quantities for canning or preserving, now is the time. Advance orders can be packaged up and waiting for you at the market. We've gotten a little rain, about 1/2 inch the other day so tomato and pepper sizes are near normal. Some nice slicing tomatoes will be available.