Insect-Free: A Guide to Home Vegetable Inspection - Herbs (2 of 4)

now we're ready to start discussing herbs herbs require a totally different method than just described by leafy vegetables the problem with the herbs and we will of course provide you with a practical very simplistic solution is that the insects in the herbs are nestled in between the sprigs of dill as I have in my hand or there somewhere hanging on a branch of parsley or they just might be on the actual stem of something as flavorful as rosemary thyme a specialty herb is certainly one of the most difficult herbs to clean and they are fully loaded with aphids thrips and the use of thyme should certainly be limited and even perhaps eliminated however other items such as oregano or basil could be processed in a way which allows you full use of these wonderful herbs what's the goal the goal is that we're going to take these various herbs we're going to soak them and after we soak them we're going to rinse them in such a manner that we will be ensured at the end of the process that we have clear water and there is nothing in the water that has any type of presence of any insects so let's begin we take a receptacle a very highly recommended receptacle would be a glass either Pyrex rectangular receptacle such as this it could work with something round we take water from the tap as you will see the tremendous benefit of using something transparent will be the easy ability for you to notice anything that shouldn't be in the water we take some soapy solution as we did before we just place it into the water we mix it we feel the water the water is now soapy allowing whatever herb you're about to Merce into the into the dish to remove any surface insects or any insects that might be buried in the midst of the dense sprig we let it soak for three to five minutes and then we agitate in water as we mentioned with the leafy vegetables use a receptacle that's large enough to accommodate the amount that you're using allowing the agitation and the product to be totally submerged under the water after we are finished with our agitation and we are ready for the next step we are going to take over here we see the entire bunch of dill place under a heavy stream of water and we are going to begin rinsing as you see we're rinsing and as we're rinsing we're using our fingers to separate the individual sprigs of dill washing them giving them a real bath here we go a real bit spreading them out rinsing them top and bottom enjoying the smell at the same time and now we're ready to go to the next vital step just for you to understand we've just soaked this bunch of dill we've allowed the dill to be agitated in the soapy solution we remove the dill we've just rinsed it under a heavy stream of water and while rinsing it under the water we spread out each of the sprigs so the water could get into the small little needles of the dill and now we have to figure out a way to know did we actually remove the insects that might have been hiding in midst of this bunch how do you do it so here we go we take a second dish or if you wish does wrong to empty out the contents of the soapy dish and get something where you'll be able to just put in clear water and we place our dill into the clear water we're doing this with the hope that when we finish agitating the dill in the water when we give it a really good bath now that we finished the two minutes of agitation we remove the product it could be a bunch it could be two bunches it can be three bunches it could be dill alone it could be parsley alone it could be the Rose Marie it could be there oregano the same process applies by these items just mentioned as well as some other herbs which we will name in a few minutes and then we put it to the side and now comes the Vedika the inspection how do you inspect now how do you ensure that your washing process has removed your insects that might have been present in this bunch of dill parsley rosemary here we come to a very important item called a light box a light box is not an absolute necessity but it sure makes life easy normally if you're in a well-lit area in the kitchen you could just simply take your clear dish that you've just filled up with cold water you soak jerbs and - look at it look at it while it being placed under a well lit area - just notice if there any of those aphids that we pointed out before or any of the thrips that we pointed out before and then we just look in the water to see if we notice any thing in the water that resembles an insect now let me tell you if you have an infested bunch of dill or parsley rosemary and you didn't wash it well you're gonna find those insects swimming in this dish but just as a important point you can find small little needles that might have shed from the stem that's not what we're looking for that's part of the dill we're actually looking for those insects floating in the dish and this is where we get to the convenience of a light box this light box that we see in front of us is a commercial light box it's something which would be typically used in a food service establishment such as a restaurant a caterer and certainly there's no reason to have such a large light box in your home if you use a tremendous amount of produce if it's something which is easier for you to use because of the size then certainly by all means however today they have produced a small little light box home friendly that literally is almost a quarter of the size perhaps half the size battery-operated able to be easily stored and certainly a tremendous help for checking leafy vegetables and if you're an herb person that loves to spice your favorite dishes with fresh herbs you simply put on your light box and now all of a sudden what seem to be dark before it's completely illuminated because the concept of the light box is that the illumination coming from under the receptacle allows you to see everything the light shines through so simply to the average site to be nearsighted you could be farsighted you have your corrective lenses you just look inside and you look for those insects will which will be extremely visible and of course not to be confused with the sheddings as we have one right over here that's a shedding as we said before as you've seen in the earlier in the DVD what the Athan looks like what the thrips looks like and right now I'm looking into this dish and seeing absolutely nothing except for those few sheddings of needles coming off from that dill stem after you've done this voila you can now use your parsley you could use your dill you could use a Rosa Marie as I said before time is extremely infested it's not worth your time the oregano can be done the same exact method as the other herbs you could use your cilantro you could use you imagine room you could use a whole host of other herbs and follow the same exact procedure and then just look into that receptacle at the end look into the water to see if you have any recognizable insects if in case you do find a couple and you're still ambitious enough to use that herb you just repeat the process you start from the beginning you soak it in soapy water you then rinse it you fill up clear water you let it soak you look at the clear water and if you see nothing then then of course you could just use that herb let me just conclude with one last item which would rear which will really allow us to go into the next section of discussion I'm holding in my hand basil the crucial ingredient for pesto sauce very versatile er abused in some very mouth-watering dishes however basil really provides us with a challenge although the process used for the herbs is certainly recommended for basil however there is one additional challenge with basil and we'll discuss this challenge in regard to some other produce items as well and that is the presence of a worm called a leaf miner a leaf miner as you see right in front of you very clearly depicted this leaf and notice the trail notice a trail in this trail was the home of a worm the worm actually migrated from the ground onto the leaf it pecked its way into the fiber of the leaf until it found a vulnerable spot it went when it finally found its spot it crawled in with its non skeletal structure and it created that trail it ate its way the mark of the trail on the basal are small black dots it's literally visible with the skin of the eye you look at the basal if then you finished washing it it's literally a two-second look the trail is seen immediately that trail could be indicative of a worm right there solution it's not worth your time take the leaf that has a trail and discard it the basil that we have over here is the herb which needs two types of checking the checking and the processing of the soaking as we did by the dill the parsley but it's not only basil there are some other herbs also that can have those trails parsley cilantro one should just keep an open eye actually the hokhmah suddam the great posix of the 18th century stated that he recommends to look at things before you eat them as we said before it's not only herbs that have these leaf miners spinach as well can have leaf miners there are tea three types of spinach available on the market there's the curly leaf spinach which is extremely curly very hard to deal with and quite frankly is recommended not to be used because of its very curly and tight contour however in my hand I have a regular full grown leaf of spinach and as well as the third type of spinach which is also a flat leaf non curly strain and that is called baby spinach and with these two products both the full grown flat leaf spinach and the baby spinach the way that you wash it is in a very similar manner they could be soaked and after being soaked they could be rinsed but over here with the spinach and with the herb which we said before the basil even though they're processed the same way as the cilantro same way as the parsley same way as the dill however the water checking is not necessary here because you're checking it anyway for the leaf miner you're looking at the leaf and examining the leaf to see if there's anything present on the leaf which is literally a less than a 10 second scan so you're looking at the leaf anyway there's no need to duplicate your checking and look at the water so really although the spinach does have the commonality shared with the rest of the leaves in its washing process you don't need to follow the same checking process by looking at the water rather just a visual look at the leaf at the spinach leaf a leaf a visual look at the basal looking to see if there are any trails there will accomplish both to notice if there any surface insects such as the thrips or aphids as well as the leaf miner trails a good way to do this that's also fast is to use that light box that we recommended and you put them right on we have our basil here we have our spinach here just merely looking which will indicate any trail and you just then could finish if you see nothing just enjoy if you don't have the bug checker you could then do the the more tedious process and just holding up the leaf to a well-lit area and look for the leaf miner trails and of course at the same time to make certain that there's no surface insects on the either side of the leaf now we finish discussing the topic of herbs now we're ready to go to the next section which discusses some miscellaneous produce such as broccoli cauliflower onions so now let's see what to do with those things