Stevia~cleansing fresh produce and veggies

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Hi all:

 

Did a bit of an experiment with my only Stevia plant last Fall. Covered it

with mulch to see if it would come back. It did! Was a bit late coming in, but

looked last week and there it was, it had popped out of the raised bed and was

already prolific. Cool! We're in East TN., and have freezing weather in the

Winter, and I've understood that Stevia was more of a Tropical plant. Also,

have heard that it's hard to grow from seed. This was bought as a plant.

 

Do have a lil Stevia book too that tells a bit of info about the plant. Try

to get it used to save a bit of money.

 

Basically, you make a simple syrup out of the Stevia by simmering in pure

water. It will be sweeter than most sugar so tasting is a must when using it as

a sweetner. This will be my first year in using it fresh, I have made the

simple syrup from dried leaf in the past. How long it lasts in the frigerator,

I have no idea. At the least, one week. There are some Stevia sellers on the

list, perhaps they can chime in and give us some more info. All I've really

seen is their ads about the product.

 

What I would really like to know about Stevia is: How it gets from green

flake to white concentrate that you buy in the stores?

 

Do know that you can grind down the dried leaf to a small consistency, and if

you don't mind the texture, use it like that. Am betting you can do the same

with the fresh leaf.

 

From what I've read, most folks either like the concentrated white product

which must have a chemical processing or they use the simple syrup method.

 

Sorry to be incomplete on this answer, hopefully those more knowledgeable will

kick in and add a bit to this post.

 

On my way out for the day, but if no one else answers, I'll double check my

book and get the exact amounts needed to make the simple syrup.

 

Kathleen, you crack me up about the veggies! What I gathered from the Spinach

scare last year is: It was in the cells of the plants and could not have been

washed as I'm going to mention. You may have been able to have cooked the heck

out of it and avoided getting sick, but who's to know for sure!

 

One thing is for sure, if you have a suppressed immune system, some things are

better for you to grow yourself to be absolutely sure, and/or to wash them, and

certainly not take the chance on eating them raw.

 

As you know, there are veggie washes on the market. Bought a few of them

marked down a few years ago and read the ingredient list on them. Basically,

they were mostly vinegar. White Distilled Vinegar. WDVinegar is not a great

vinegar to eat, but it does have some good properties such as a cleanser. When

those bottles were used up, I began buying White Vinegar and adding to my spray

bottles. The instructions for washing are: Spray thoroughly and leave 2

minutes than rinse well, cook and/or eat and be a bit less scared of what you

are eating. tee hee

 

Note: You can not leave the vinegar spray on lettuces as long as 2 min.

normally, so spray well on just what you are going to eat, rinse, spin, eat.

And hope like h*ll that it had no cell contamination. Personally, I've only

eaten mass produced spinach raw one time since that incident, but I do grown my

own. If you spray extra lettuce it will discolor and begin to deteriorate.

 

Note: Hard rind melons tend to a breeding ground for bacteria. You can wash

those with liquid soap and water first and then use the Vinegar second and know

that your A** is probably covered well! ;0)

 

Note: Most cases of e coli, salmonella, etc., have come from big companies

that have used that recycled waste water, This is what happened to the green

onions a few years ago.(Shutter), or poor field practices such as not providing

bathroom facilities and insisting that their employees wash their hands between

doing their biz and going back to the field and picking fruits & veggies. (Huge

Shutter) Or, another possibility being: there was a drain off of unhealthy

critters draining onto fields. One thing is for sure: I have a lot less faith

in Dole in the last few years. Their name seems to always be linked to

contamination.

 

Always wash your fruit and veggies and pray that they are clean enough to eat

if you eat them raw! Otherwise, cook them to get rid of most baddies after you

wash them, and you'll be even more safe. Lastly, make sure your knife is clean

when slicing fruites and veggies. Bacteria can cling to a knife like you would

not believe!

 

Have a great Friday everyone,

deb