When Bugs are a Good Thing

Insects and Imperfections

Last week at one of the markets an irate customer wanted to return lettuce from one of the Certified Organic vendors because they had found larvae in it. It could have been a grub or a caterpillar. Good thing it wasn’t me fielding their ire or I would have told them they were lucky they weren’t charged for the added protein.Seriously.Here at Dishing the Dirt we’ve been talking about the challenges of Certified Organic produce production and the weather this last month. Today we’re going to put both topics together to drive home the point of how much weather impacts production.Yes, lots of rain brings planting, growing and harvest challenges for all farmers and producers, including those of us who raise livestock. The rains and humidity increase incidences of pests and fungus.Think about those two words, pests and fungus. Why do people buy Certified Organic foods? Could it be because they don’t want pesticides and fungicides sprayed on their food? I’ll try to make this as simple as possible. You can either have bugs, slugs, beetles, grubs, worms, larvae, flies, snails, and hoppers on your fruits and veggies or you can have chemicals. You can have mold, rust, spot, rot, blight and slime on your fruits and veggies or you can have chemicals.One of the biggest pet peeves of anyone who grows sweet corn is when customers peel back the husks, find one small worm at the top of the cob just under the silk and then toss it aside in search of an ear without a worm. “They don’t want spray and they don’t want worms,” groused one farmer who threatened to quit growing sweet corn until posting a sign toward the end of the sweet corn season that read, “We guarantee that every ear of corn contains a worm. You don’t have to check.”And about chemicals, before passing judgement, realize that not all non-certified producers use pesticides and fungicides and those who do may have no other choice. Not all “chemical” means of pest control are alike in their toxicity, persistence in the environment and range of action. Unlike conventional pesticides which are synthetically formulated to be chemically toxic causing death in the pests using nerve or stomach agents, biorational chemicals are less toxic. Examples include pheromones that lure pests away from produce to be caught in sticky traps. A pheromone is a chemical compound, but it is nontoxic, only confusing the pest instead of directly killing it. Other non-toxic chemicals include attractants, repellants and anti-feeding agents.In addition to the insect explosion that is inevitable with wet, hot, humid weather, fungi go into overdrive. Notice how ripe fruits on your counter tend to grow fuzz and liquefy at lightning speed during the dog days of summer? This is the work of fungus among us and it is what farmers must deal with on a large-scale every growing season.Customers have become accustomed to pristine produce, choosing only the most perfect specimens, passing over anything sporting a blemish. Farmers strive to offer the best they can, but sometimes nature has other plans. If you watch closely, you’ll see vendors constantly roving throughout their stands picking out the less-than-perfect and tossing it in a compost bin behind the tables. Unfortunately, that’s difficult to do when an entire crop, like mustard greens, all have tiny bites from Flea Beetles on each leaf.Last Sunday I brought home a couple of eggplants, one that had been tag-teamed by pests & fungus and another with a cosmetic blemish. The bulb of garlic was struggling in the humidity to properly cure and would have most likely rotted if not used soon. Despite these imperfections, my baba ganoush was delicious.Here are some tips for dealing with pests and fungus you may find on fruits and vegetables in wet, hot and humid weather.

• Wash it. Even if you purchase Certified Organic, the produce still needs to be thoroughly rinsed to remove debris such as soil and {gasp} bugs. Rinsing and drying will also cut down on fungus during storage prior to consumption.
• Refrigerate it. Warm temperatures and moisture are the perfect environment for eggs laid by pests to develop. In a chilled environment, the eggs will fail to develop.
• Eat it. Don’t wait until Thursday or Friday to make that peach cobbler or caprese salad if the fruit was ripe on Saturday or Sunday when purchased.
• Buy it. Fruits and vegetables blemished by environmental factors took the same amount of time, labor and resources to grow—probably more due to the battle against nature. Losing crops = losing income and farmers still need to pay their bills.