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Yuck, My apple smells like chemicals

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by freshmtt, Jul 8, 2008.

  1. freshmtt

    freshmtt Dachshund Addict

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    Yuck,, I bought some apples at my local store on Sunday and they are not Organic Apples, just the regular ones that get sprayed with some kind of waxing crap to make them look shiny. Yesterday I brought one to work and forgot to wash it before I packed it. I started eating it here at work and I noticed a very distinct chemical smell. I was like, :eek: what the hell is that smell. It is my apple!!!! So I tossed the apple thinking it was just because I should have washed it and it might have been my imagination.

    So, today I happily remember to wash the apple at home in hot water before packing it, and here I am sitting at my desk again, and I go to take a bite, and smell the chemical kind of smell again. :eek: Shit,, these apples really do have a very prominent chemical smell. They actually smell like some of the stuff I spray onto my car when I wash the car. Like some kind of spray on wax or Tire Wet stuff...

    This is really disgusting and I try to buy Organic fruit as much as possible, but since Trader Joe's is over a half hour from my house, I get lazy sometimes, and the Health food stores were closed on Sunday. I bought the regular apples from the store.

    When you think about all the crap they spray on the fruit, like whatever kind of wax they spray on, I wonder what that stuff really is.. Very gross when you start thinking about it. I'm gonna have to google this and try and find out what kind of crap is sprayed on this fruit. And I guess I am just going to have to made a very good effort to keep buying the Organic fruit especially the Apples.
     
  2. Proco

    Proco Senior Member

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  3. hyo silver

    hyo silver Awaaaaay

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    Most spraying by conscientious growers is done a certain time from picking to minimise any lingering effects. There should not be any chemical residue, but the 'wax' is sometimes over-applied. You might have to scrub your apple a bit to get it all off.

    If you think fruit and veggies are bad for pesticides, you don't want to know about cotton. A big part of the anti-hemp campaign in the US was funded by chemical companies who didn't want their customers switching to a relatively pesticide-free crop.
     
  4. nosliw

    nosliw New Member

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    grow your own?
     
  5. hyo silver

    hyo silver Awaaaaay

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    :D Apples? No. My grandparents have an orchard, and I spent many a summer picking fruit and learning the business.

    Freshmtt, I probably wouldn't eat that apple if it still smells. Take them back to the store along with the receipt, and ask for a refund because the food is inedible.
     
  6. Spectra

    Spectra Amphi-Prius

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    How about these apples:

    Many pesticides have been banned in the US sinces the 1970's. So, what did Union Carbide & Dow Chemical do with all their residual supplies? They sold them off to South American growers, where the pesticide standards are lower. So, the southern temperate countries can grow all our favorite summer fruits down there, during the North American winter ... and then ship them back to us, pesticides & all !!! :eek:

    It would sound like a George Carlin bit ... but it's true ! :eek:

    Anyway, in response to pesticides, Salmonella & all -- I rinse my fruits in a 50-50 combo of Hydrogen peroxide & rubbing (isopropyl) alcohol, to clean them. Hell, maybe some of that alcohol will seep in & give me a buzz ... :p
     
  7. hyo silver

    hyo silver Awaaaaay

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    And DDT is still sold in Africa. Corporations have sued countries for enforcing their environmental protection laws, claiming a 'barrier to trade'. Isn't globalisation wonderful? :rolleyes:
     
  8. freshmtt

    freshmtt Dachshund Addict

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    WEll, I called the store and spoke to a kid in Produce and he was shocked to hear what I was telling , I said, yeah, I'm not shitting you, the apples smell like spray on car wax... He told me to bring them back ASAP and they would refund my money, but my husband ate most of them already,, I called him and asked him if he noticed any smell, and he said NO, but then again he thought they were Organic ones and was not even paying attention and his nose is not as good as mine, I on the other hand could not ignore it because my nose is very sensitive and I can smell stuff like that, I brought the apple to a couple co-workers and they also noticed the smell and said YUCK!! So it was not just my imagination.

    I'm bringing them back today and I am not going to buy anymore apples again unless they are organic, so I just have to make the effort to get them from Trader Joes and the Health food stores in my area.

    thanks to the person that posted that link at the beginning of the thread about which fruits and veggies have the highest amount of pesticides.

    This is one of the reasons why we try to buy as much Organic fruits and veggies as we can afford to. We have already switched over to Organic Eggs, Milk and Chicken.

    I wish I could grow an Apple tree in my yard, that would take too long.

    I remember as a child we lived behind an older man and his son that had apple trees in the yard. They always let my mom come and pick as many as we wanted every year. When we were little we would always tell our mom that we wanted the "real" apples that were off the tree and not the ones in the stores, the "real" apples straight from the tree always and I mean always tasted better!!!
     
  9. hyo silver

    hyo silver Awaaaaay

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    Most people have no idea what fresh produce tastes like. It's best first thing in the morning, warm on one side and cool on the other. If it's picked ripe, it's rotten by the time it gets to the store. The cherries I've seen as 'fresh local' for $5 a pound are culls we would have fed to the dog. (Yeah, the dog was a bit strange, and we made sure he slept outside on the days he ate too many cherries. He liked chomping on tomato worms, too.)
     
  10. freshmtt

    freshmtt Dachshund Addict

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    I agree with you, most people don't really know what it is to have real fresh fruit right off the tree and not picked months before it is ripe and shipped to us here. I got a good taste of this,, :p no pun intended, when I lived in Haiti. Living in the Caribbean for 1 year I got so spoiled when it came to eating fresh fruit.. The Pinneapple, Mangoes, Bananas, etc.. where sweeter than I had ever had in my life before. Since they are picked when they are ripe and not before hand, what a difference this makes.

    I tell you this was 17 years ago, and I have NEVER had the kind of Bananas that I did when I lived in Haiti. For a long time after I came back I would not eat any of the fruit here unless it was over ripe because I got sick of trying something only for it to be sour and just yuck... still to this day I will not touch my Bananas until it has brown spots all over the peel, and still it does not taste like the ones in Haiti fresh from the tree....

    :tsk: Makes me sick just thinking about what I am missing,, gosh did I get spoiled when I lived there, among all the poverty and filth I ate healthier in Haiti than I do here in the U.S.
     
  11. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    If you own your home, you could have a crop of apples in a year or two.

    I just bought two columnar apple trees. One has an apple right now. I don't live in an area great for apples, not cold enough, but you do. I have my trees in pots so they'll take more care. But you could put yours in the ground and pretty much forget about them except for watering and feeding. I'll have to figure out a way to get mine cold enough to bear fruit. I'm thinking of putting a larger ring around the outside of the pots and filling it with ice in over the winter to get the 700 chill hours needed for fruit.

    But I've got citrus and apricot trees and will have a great crop of tomatoes this summer.

    If you have land, you can grow your own produce. If you want apples, plant two trees. I choose columnar to keep the size manageable.
     
  12. freshmtt

    freshmtt Dachshund Addict

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    Hmmm,, That is a good idea!!!! I did not know this variety was available and only 1 or 2 years..

    Yes, we own our home and have a good sized yard, I bet I could find a place in the backyard for the tree. I'll have to check into this tree at a local nursery.

    Thanks so much for this info! I really had no idea that you could plant a smaller Apple tree and have it produce fruit in such a short time period.

    Sadly, we did not do a garden this year and we should have, I miss not having fresh Tomatoes and Cucumbers.
     
  13. Proco

    Proco Senior Member

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    Hey! That was *me*! You're very welcome. My wife read about the "dirty dozen" of produce a number of years ago and we've been fanatical about it ever since. They change the list every now & then as some fruits/veggies use more/less pesticides. So check with it every now & then. But apples & peaches are pretty much locked into the top spots.
     
  14. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    Now that my Dad is older he doesn't spray his fruits and vegetables like he used to. So when I want organic, I see what's seasonal at my parents' house. My Dad has nectarine, apricot, peach, lemon, orange, apple (7 kinds on one tree?), plums, loquats, figs, grapefruit plus a garden with a variety of things. Tomatoes and cucumbers are current.

    I've got lemon, orange, tangerine, lime and apricot. My tomatoes are also doing well. I also planted sorrel but it isn't really ready to harvest yet. I need to check my carrots and celery.

    Unfortunately, I'd have to drive to Julien to get local apples. It's my favorite fruit to eat. I have high hopes for my apple trees.

    It is next to impossible to determine what, if anything, is local grown at the supermarket. Even the Farmer's Market is no guarantee unless the guy who grew it is selling it. And they *could* lie.
     
  15. cherry

    cherry New Member

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    :mod: I am not surprised about your apples. When I think of all the hormones and chemicals in all of our foods, it is no wonder that we have so many diseases in the world today like ADD, fibromyalgia, cancer ect. And think of all the chemicals we use in our own homes every day. There is a really interesting website called fourpointwellness.com - Angie Mellen that really talks about the chemicals and how they affect our bodies. I have gone green in my home just recently. I wish other people would consider doing the same.:cheer2:
     
  16. freshmtt

    freshmtt Dachshund Addict

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    Yes, I know what you mean, we have been switching over ourselves to all green household cleaning products and we have made some very big changes with our food and buy a lot of organic food and I read the food labels very carefully now. My daughter will be 11yrs old in August and is Bipolar/ADHD and has Dyslexia. I made a transition last June and took her off all her Rx drugs and switched her over to all vitamin and mineral supplements to control her Bipolar and ADHD and it has worked very well. She has been drug free for 1 year already and she is more stable on the vitamins and minerals and Omega 3 fish oil than she had been on the Rx drugs. I also took all the High Fructose Corn Syrup out of her diet, no soda, no junk food, no artificial preservatives, no colors/dyes, etc.. Changing her food also made her ADHD symptoms better.