Rima’s DIY Natural Vegetable & Fruit Wash

Use this spray on all your fruits and veggies!

Washing your produce thoroughly, whether you purchase organic or not, is extremely important! I make homemade veggie broth (which I’ll talk about it a future post) from my vegetable scraps so I even clean the parts of the vegetables that we don’t consume (no dirt in the broth, please!).

You can buy produce cleaners from the store, but they tend to be expensive considering you can make a quality vegetable and fruit spray at home using 4 simple ingredients (one of them is water!).

Depending on how dirty the produce is, you might want to consider spraying the produce and allowing it to sit for 5 – 10 minutes with the spray. Then use a scrub brush to clean completely (such as with beets or potatoes, or anything non-organic). This will help to remove dirt, pesticides and chemicals from the skin. Use your discretion!

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Ingredients

• 1 cup distilled water
• 1 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 20 drops organic grapefruit essential oil

You’ll need:

• Spray bottle
• Large pitcher

1. Combine all ingredients in a large container, like a pitcher.
2. Transfer to a spray bottle with a pump.
3. Spray mixture on produce, and let sit for 1 – 10 minutes, depending on the produce. 
4. Scrub (if necessary) with a scrub brush and rinse thouroughly with water.

Notes

• The reason for mixing in a large pitcher first is because the vinegar and baking soda will create a reaction that will cause it to fizz up out of your spray bottle and overflow everywhere!
• For a 32 oz bottle, you can multiply the recipe by 1.5. Adjust based on the size of your bottle.
• Distilled water only if available – tap water works too, since you’re rinsing with tap water anyway.
• Keep spray bottle in the “Off” position when not in use because the vinegar/baking soda reaction can cause it to fizz in the bottle and leak out (especially for the first two days as it settles). Keeping it in the off position prevents this.
• Grapefruit essential oil is available at health food stores or on-line. You can also substitute for tangerine, lemon, lemongrass, or orange (citrus oils have a disinfecting effect).