The List

On the okay list, oh well.

My poor mother-in-law was making a salad with lettuce from our CSA on our trip to Bear Lake and noticed a bug that had made itself at home on one of the leaves. My first reaction was "that's GREAT!" Later I realized that was probably why she didn't end up having any and that I must've sounded like a crazy bug eater. Actually, I figure if something can live there, it must be a healthy sign. Lately I've grown scared of the suffix "icide."

At first, the transition to buying organic produce was hard, pulling that extra money out of my tight fist. But I eased myself into it, only getting what was on sale and when I was ready to make the full switch, I wondered if there are somethings that don't really matter if you buy organic. So I found a couple of lists, foods that should and also others that don't necessarily have to be organic. Apparently the USDA studied different crops and their residual pesticides, even after washing. First with the good news, what you don't have to spend the extra money for, generally things with a nice thick skin, which we don't eat and probably make it hard for bugs to get through anyway.

• Onions
• Avocados
• Sweet Corn
• Pineapples
• Mangoes
• Sweet Peas
• Asparagus
• Kiwi
• Cabbage
• Eggplant
• Cantaloupe (Domestic)
• Watermelon
• Grapefruit
• Sweet Potatoes
• Honeydew Melon

And now for the scary list. I'm regretting all those cheap Chilean grapes in grocery trips past and still cringe when Brian comes home with "conventional" cherries:

• Apples
• Cherries
• Grapes, imported (Chili)
• Nectarines
• Peaches
• Pears
• Raspberries
• Strawberries

Vegetables

• Bell peppers
• Celery
• Potatoes
• Spinach

So there you go. Maybe I'll link to a couple of articles: msn, doctor, greenies, and cnn. I wonder if fox news has anything. Better look into it for my mom.