Thursday, June 12, 2008

What's Yer Poison?


Lemons n' tomatoes - poop & salmonella - pick yer poison.

Sure glad I'm growing my own this year. I can assure that poop is not used for fertilizer and Salmon Ella is not visiting my yard, unless wasps carry Ms. Ella about - don't think so. Poor bees - all gone - lethal looking redish drones and sleek black bomber wasps are busily visiting all of our plants. I have warned the boy never to show fear and not to move suddenly in their presence - maybe we can tolerate one another. If Psycho would stop eating the chameleons, perhaps we would have less stinging, biting bugs around, but he can't help it - he is a serial stalker and killer, alas.

I get up in the morning and pull the worms (its a good sign that I have earth worms!!!) out of the way of the voracious fire ants and throw them back in the dirt.

Back to our outbreaks: this is really sad because one of my favorite foods is fresh salsa...yum.....I usually use an orange oil based vegetable wash on my fruits and vegetables. Not to mention, this kind of stuff kills people. Anyway, less salsa for us this month unless its canned - and no lemons in the water at restaurants.......

Don't know if its because I'm old and don't have much to think about, but I think about germs a lot. I wash my doorknobs once a month. I wash my hands immediately upon coming home from being out and about and carry little bottles of antibacterial stuff in my purse. Used to drive my older grandkids nuts... totally nuts. But I hated seeing them crawl on sidewalks where people spit - they always got sick when they wouldn't let me wipe 'em down.

Then, meat - - - when "H" met me, he said, "You wash meat?" After seeing how often he washes his hands? You betcha I wash meat, chicken, fish.....but then......

What about all the toxins from the sprays on vegetables and fruits - the U.S. regulates that...but many foreign countries don't - some sprays can't be washed off - they penetrate the skin of apples, cherries, other thin skinned fruits....and vegetables.....and we wonder why we don't feel good!

Maybe people died in the "old" days - but I suppose mostly from fecal-spread diseases - and diseases like malaria, yellow fever, and other diseases that we are lucky enough to have mostly eradicated here in the U.S. My great grandfather died of yellow fever and left 13 kids. Death came in different, quicker forms back then.

What can we do to keep all this poison out of our bodies? Its hard enough outside the home - but what can we do in the home to make our "sanctuary" truly a sanctuary. I watch my grandsons and oldest daughter suffer with allergies. One thing we can do is get our body in as good of shape as possible to resist onslaughts. The next is to attempt to decontaminate our homes. Our tap water smells like algae - and sure enough, if left to itself, algae will grow. Our municipal system allows so many parts of heavy metal and coloforms in the tap water - not too mention the lead still existing in pipes. Its not supposed to be there - but why are we told to run all our eating/drinking water through cold water pipes?

The list is endless. The seeking is endless as well. Why do we want to live so long and feel so good why we are doing it? I have a secret to tell you - as the body ages, the mind still feels young. It does. And new ways are coming out to make the body stay younger - the new 60 is now 45. So what is the new 45 - 30? And the new 30? See, you are younger than you think.

9 comments:

Karen said...

Lemons now too? Oh goodness. That's not good. And I have to admit that I rarely wash vegetables or fruit. I know I should but I just can't be bothered. Considering the number of outbreaks recently though...I might just have to start.

**Ya Think** said...

I had read somewhere the problem with produce is the mass population of wild boar in our country. It is the fecal matter from these that is doing it. Hate to disappoint you, but two will boar piglets were captured in a residential neighborhood in Corpus Christi last year. I see wild boar tracks out here all the time.

I am hoping by the end of the summer to have an elevated garden with topsoil brought in. It is $75.00 a truckload. I am planning on using railroad ties for the rails for the elevation. I may be naive but perhaps this will help. My neighbors are helping me with this. The trouble with a lot of topsoil out here is it was brought in from peanut farms, so you have to put up with peanut growth in your garden.

I enjoyed the part bout the new 60 is 45.. Did you know the new 24 is 12 do to the lack of supervision of children as they come into adulthood?

tweetey30 said...

Lemons are good but if they are contimanated too ouch.. What is going on here. Your post makes so much sense.

Biddie said...

I only buy produce locally from our Market now. Less expensive and I know where it is coming from.
I have only recently gotten into the habit of washing my fruits and veggies. Scary thought.

Red said...

I never wash chicken or fish, but I think Asterisk does. I figure I'm going to cook it anyway, so anything nasty will more likely be killed by heat than by water.

As for germs, I wonder if excessive cleanliness might make us more vulnerable to attack. Perhaps it's good when kids stuff their faces with dirt -- kinda protects them/steels them against worse things. When I was a kid, we used to pick up pine nuts, smash them with a rock on the pavement and eat them. I'm sure we were eating more dirt than pine nut, but I'm sure it didn't do us any harm either! Overall I'm more concerned about E numbers than a bit of earth in the folds of a lettuce! :D

Milla said...

I wish I could grow lemons (or any kind of citrus plant) in my garden but there isn't enough sun in England to grow lemons.

I am like you Gardenia regarding germs. I use public transport so as soon as I come home or arrive at work I wash my hands. I also wash newly-bought clothes before wearing them the first time (I think 'who knows who tried these on before me...'). In my village we always wash meat and fish before cooking -I thought that was the norm?!

BTW, I have just looked at my bedroom and the floor is full of dust and the windows are filthy. Never mind killing germs...I can't even be bothered to dust them away it seems!

Gardenia said...

Ah - the dust - somehow it doesn't seem as germy - -

Heidi Grether said...

What did ya find out ab the water?

Candy Minx said...

I am somewhat messy but super clean.

The good news is...we're immune to our own houses...(thats one reason why home births are better than hospital births). So I sterilize stuff and wash my hands a fair bit but over all...I think we can trust our mucus membranes thay are doign their job.

I wash meat and every piece of grape and food that comes in the house. Even though we eat organic...half a dozen peopel have likely handled our food before it gets to the grocery store and accidents happen. No big deal.

By the way...grape and cherry tomatoes are okay and they make good salsa!