I completely understand your concern and appreciate the tone with which you presented it. In this case, though, I think you would be ok with the situation involving my visitors. You see, the very, very first thing that I told them was that where I live here in TN it just isn’t possible to grow many fruits organically, so before they took their first bite they fully understood that I had sprayed the fruits earlier in the season. They said they completely understood and told me that they don’t pay the extra cost to buy organic fruit in the grocery stores, so they didn’t mind. You should also know that they were not elderly- they were probably in their late 40’s and seemed healthy. Another thing you might like to know is that it was me, not them, who insisted that they wash the fruits that had been sprayed earlier in the year (I don’t spray anything close to harvest and some of my apples and pears I haven’t sprayed since early spring). So we washed their fruit with a hose and a plastic bowl I keep for that purpose.
So, they were fully informed that my fruit wasn’t organic, they were already used to eating non-organic fruit, they were fairly young, healthy people, everything they ate got washed-at my suggestion not theirs- so I feel pretty good about that aspect of their visit/tour.
Your story about the stall selling non-organic fruit as organic is one I’ve always suspected happens more than it should. There is a seller at the Nashville Farmers Market (near me) has a booth that sells peaches and has a big sign that says “locally grown and organic” and I’m 99.99% sure one of those things just cannot be true. Either those peaches were grown organically somewhere like CA with less insect and disease pressure, or they were grown here in TN but with spray. They are perfect looking peaches, so I find it extremely unlikely that they grow them organically here. Every other local organic peach I’ve ever seen were all not very nice looking, were picked very early, and had lots of spots and insect bites as well as remnants of Surround visible in many cases. My point is, I think there are a lot of dishonest growers like the ones you caught, and I applaud you for pointing them out. I may not be an organic grower, but I’d also never ever claim to be.
Anyway, thanks for your post and the kind way you tried to make sure I’m careful and doing the right thing, Hopefully you will agree that the factors listed above made the situation ok for everyone. Hope your daughter is doing well now.
UPDATE/EDIT : @anon18642480 I’m a little slow! It just now occurred to me that your note above was probably because you were as concerned about all the people I give gift boxes to and not just the couple that stopped by my house. So I wanted to follow up and reassure you that I still think I’m doing the right thing. I give away around 35 gift boxes per year to family/extended family, neighbors, co-workers, friends, etc. I have told every single person that I give gift boxes to that my fruit is NOT organic and should be washed. Out of all the people I give boxes to, I’ve only had a total of one say they only eat organic, so I give them a box of my enterprise apples when they come in because I don’t spray them at all. Even then I have explained that I still spray nearby trees so there could be a small amount of drift and they say they aren’t so devoted to organic that they are worried about that. The enjoy the apples. Everyone else always mentions that they never buy the more expensive organic grocery store produce and/or MANY MANY of them just say humorus things like “well, something is going to kill us anyway” or “well, almost everything causes cancer if you listen to the news” and so on. Point is, they don’t mind non organic and they do know my fruit isn’t organic. Furthermore, I know all the people I give my boxes to and none have any compromised immune systems or health problems of a serious nature. In short, I honestly don’t think there are any issues, but I feel like as long as I’m open and honest they can make their own decisions. Hope you agree and feel better now. Thanks again for your concern and the way you brought it forward.
