The thread a few lines back about the USDA and cleanliness of food gotme thinking, especially the line about "I might even wash the carrot before I eat it"!

When I was little, Daddy used to pick turnips, tomatoes, apples, you name it, while we were in the garden, fishing, whatever and wherever we might find or have a snack around. He ALWAYS pulled his pocket knife out of his jeans, opened it, wiped the hay and dust off, and cut or peeled whatever we had at the moment. My mother would always turn up her nose, but Daddy always insisted that "It's clean!".

Now, it wasn't that Mom didn't like all those fresh yummy things, it was the pocketknife she protested. You see, this was the same pocketknife that Daddy always used to cut up the liver for fish bait, stuck in the dirt to dig those turnips up, and most of all, used to cut the heads off of those Darn Snapping Turtles we caught out of the pond!! I remember her shuddering just thinking of the turtle guts!!

Talk about turning the stomach of those USDA folk!!

-- Christine in OK (cljford@mmcable.com), February 21, 2002

Answers

My dh always insists his is clean too.....and that's usually right after he's cleaned out a horse's hoof with it!

-- Lenette in OR (kigervixen@webtv.net), February 22, 2002.