Whitsend Market Garden

“Farmer! There’s a worm in my squash, a fly in my peas, and a weed in my salad!”


New life on an old line. It happens. At Elmtree, the other interns and I giggled that this was the customer’s assurance that the food was pesticide and herbicide free. However, that kind of response to a complaint would not be very customer friendly.

Shortly after harvest, all produce is either swished or submerged into ice-cold well water. The main reasons are to knock off any additional soil; and to take the “ground heat” out of the produce - allowing it to last longer during transit and storage in your fridge. It is at this stage that we can separate clover leaves, etc. from the cut and come again greens. However, some will get through. I found a very fine example of well-fed, carefully watered, wholesome sprig of ragweed masquerading as Shinginku. Fortunately, I found this before it made it into my salad.

Bugs in the food are treated somewhat differently. We put a couple drops of organic vinegar into the water before submerging the produce – a trick I learned during my internship. This causes bugs to fall off or let go of the leaf they are riding on, and they usually fall to the bottom of the tank or float off. So finding six (or more) legged creatures in your greens should not be too commonplace. Let me know if you find otherwise.

So please remember that we do our part to keep your food free of little annoyances, and bear in mind that there is far worse than finding a “fly in your soup”.

Talk to you later,

Bob