Vegetables can kill you too! - Mar 10, 2010
We encourage our children to eat vegetables to stay healthy but a safe food campaigner in N.Z has found that celery had 21 pesticide residues. Other fruit and vegetables found to be on the "dirty dozen" list included cucumber, nectarines, lettuce, apricots, tomatoes, grapes and pears.
Pesticide residues can be found in fruit and vegetables sold in Australia too but because they fall below a certain level they are assumed to be safe.
Scientists have found that pesticides in food can give rise to long term effects such as hormonal cancer, immune system suppression, nervous system damage and birth defects. Pesticides can wipe out wild life too.
The only way to ensure your family is safe from chemicals is to grow your own fruit and vegetables organically at home. Your local nursery now has a range of products that will kill or deter the bugs without killing you.
Autumn is a great time to start a vegetable patch because the summer heat is gone and the soil is moist after all that beautiful rain. Some of the easiest vegetables to grow now include broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, lettuce, beetroot, peas, silverbeet and spinach.
Prepare your soil first by digging in cow manure and blood and bone then mulch with sugarcane to stop the weeds growing. Home grown vegetables really are good for you and you will taste the difference too.
Tim Pickles is a CNP horticulturist and director of Tim's Garden Centre 2 Queen St Campbelltown 46267022.