So you’ve done all the hard stuff and are finally beginning to reap the reward of harvesting your fresh garden vegetables now you just need to know how to get them all cleaned up and ready to eat.
Making sure your garden vegetables are clean and safe to eat really isn’t hard or time consuming and it doesn’t require you to run to the store to but some special vegetable wash soap. Surely, you have some vinegar and salt in the cabinet, right? That’s all you’ll need.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
All you need is a clean sink of cold water, 1-2 cups white vinegar and 2 tablespoons of salt.
GET STARTED
Fill your clean sink with cold water, add in vinegar and salt then place vegetables in the water to soak. You can gently agitate the vegetables in the water with you hands to knock off any excess dirt or scrub lightly with a vegetable brush. Let vegetables soak in the solution from 15-20 minutes.
The vinegar will help to remove any pesticides, bugs or bacteria while the salt helps to loosen any dirt.
FINAL STEP
Once vegetables have soaked, rinse them under cold water to remove any remaining vinegar solution or dirt. Pat dry with clean paper towel or kitchen towel.
Vegetables are now ready to eat, cook with or store in the fridge.
DON’T DO THIS
You will hear a lot of people recommend washing your vegetables in vinegar water and adding baking soda. Don’t do this. While technically, you can use either one in water to clean vegetables you shouldn’t mix them together as they neutralize one another’s cleaning properties thus not actually cleaning anything.
White Vinegar works to remove pesticides and bacteria while Baking Soda works a lot like Salt in that it helps to loosen dirt from the vegetables.
I use vinegar because I usually have a lot of jugs sitting around during harvest and canning season but I know some people prefer to use baking soda. To each their own, just try not to mix them.
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