Ok, so I've been trying to be as frugal as I can, and have sucked-it-up, plugged my nose, put on surgical gloves and have been buying my produce from the Price Chopper, No Frills and Food Basics in my neighbourhood.
So several weeks back, Ok about 6 weeks back, I bought celery (I can't remember from which one) because it was like 47 cents for a stalk.
So as I may have mentioned in previous posts, I have a hard time eating food before it spoils - and I still end up throwing some stuff out. Although I have discovered that some types of produce last a surprisingly long time.
So the celery lasted about 3 weeks, untouched in my crisper in the fridge. Then one day, I get home from work, and I want a snack, and I remember the celery and figure that would make a nice snack.
I take it out of the fridge, peel off a couple of ribs, and place them on the edge of the sink in prep for the washing, and put the rest of celery back in the bag, in order to return it to the fridge.
And out of the corner of my eye, I notice a little something on one of the ribs of celery - looked sort of like a leaf that was starting to expire.
So I figured I could flick it into the garbage with my little finger.
I pull the trash bin out from under the sink, and simultaneously reach in towards the celery with my pinky.
As my pinky makes contact, the object moves. Yup, I said moves!
Upon closer inspection, my "leaf" turned out to be a worm.
yup, a WORM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In my celery!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It had been living in my fridge for 3 whole weeks!
I flipped out.
I grabbed the offending celery, and the other ribs, and flung them into the trash.
I opened the fridge and proceeded to trash every piece of fresh produce in my fridge.
Then I tied-up the trash and removed it immediately to the trash chute and out of my place.
And because I can't remember where I bought it, it has put me off buying produce at all.
So for the past 2 weeks, my fridge has been completely devoid of all fruits and vegetables.
If the next time you see me, I look a little pale and undernourished - It's probably Rickets.
10 comments:
Aren't you the person who hates to throw away food? Last I checked worms were not disease ridden. I could be wrong of course.
I'm sure some soap and water would have sufficed. Trust in the Lord that he has a more noble end for you than death by worm or insects.
That was a pretty strong reaction. You should see someone about that.
I DO hate to thorw away food - so you can imagine the psychological turmoil I expereinced during my dilema.
but seriously - Worms in the food - and you expected me to just wash it off and eat?!
No way!
What could the worm possibly do? More over what could it do that wouldn't be washed away by soap and water? Plus how was the rest of the produce tainted? Mir, if you saw where your food came from you'd probably starve.
Do you realize the potatos come from the earth? They probably co-exist with worms and many other things that would make your skin crawl. People eat potatos all the time, and other than the way they are prepared, they don't do much harm.
LOL -- personally, I probably would've tossed out the one stalk of celery, then thoroughly washed the rest for my snack. It seems unlikely that my food *doesn't* come into contact with all manner of creepy crawlies, but I'm also not a big fan of seeing it for myself.
Realistically, In the cold of the fridge it was probably sleeping.
Didn't you have a mealworms section in elementary school? (am I the ONLY one who had to take one of those icky things home for the weekend??)
Once in the fridge, they stay sleep until they warm up.
I'm sure the rest of your veggies were fine.
Mmm... worms.
Was the worm in the celery? If so, I would have cut-off that part of the stalk. If not... wash the starm in warm soapy water.
My mom has red worms which she feeds paper products, and gets ... worm poo. Good for growing stuff.
heh. I read that book as a kid. :)
I'm with Mir though. I like my food fresh and if I get some indication that it's tainted in some way, I won't touch it. I probably wouldn't have tossed everything else in the fridge out, but I'm not 100% sure about that. I suppose it would depend on how creepy looking the worm was.
As for buying stuff... I'm perfectly happy going to the discount places for packaged stuff but when it comes to meat and produce, I prefer to stick to Sobey's or Loblaw's or the other place that make you feel more comfortable about their freshness and cleanliness. I think it's worth a little extra to feel better about what I'm eating, and more often than not the stuff is simply visibly better.
I dispute that fact. Meat is packaged with best before dates (which are conservative to begin with).
In fact, I can get very cheap meat from Food Basics, because they start slapping coupons on the meat that is near the best before date to move it. I got a nice prime rib a couple of weeks ago, $20 ($4 off), and believe me, it was amazing. Ask Emma.
(Suck it, The Keg!)
Some of the produce isn't great, but going to Loblaws or Sobey's doesn't guarantee better produce. The trick is to go to Food Basics when they put out their new shipments.
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