Bugs on Lettuce

[Music] thank you hello there I am your host Akiva Balsam from koshervids and today we is going to talk about bugs on lettuce you got that right watching out for bugs is very very important if a person were to eat pig he'd be transgressing one tire prohibition but if a person were to eat a bug he'd be transgressing five and possibly even six turret prohibitions that's why it's very very important to be bugged out about eating bugs get it yeah why do we have to be so careful about you like well you're careful about eating I I try not to do anything but I don't okay well eating bugs is six times as bad six times especially be over on sticks of ears California is responsible for growing one-third of the country's vegetables and two-thirds of the country's fruits and nuts that's about 30 billion dollars worth now that's a lot well since it's grown right here in California I decided to take a trip down to the Salinas area where it's all grown and see for myself if there really is a problem with the lettuce and what I found was quite scary music please [Music] thank you my first step was to contact Robin Assad Berkowitz who works for bodak and to make a meeting with him in Salinas by one of the romaine lettuce fields but since I was going to the coast of California anyways I decided to make this trip part of a one week road trip which was insanely beautiful check it out for yourself [Music] hello how's it going this is our campsite here [Music] we are [Music] here quite a long drive over here on our way to Salinas and I'll try to make conversation with my buddy over here we are he's not being too receptive though cucaracho come on man why aren't you into the road trip huh there are two main bugs which are an issue on romaine lettuce and many other fruits and vegetables their names you shall never forget forever thrips and aphids [Music] whoa and what are we looking for over here thrips and aphids those are gorgeous there's your bug checkers thrips and aphids come in many different sizes and colors and you gotta make sure that they are not camouflaged into the plants for example aphids can come in the color brown when on romaine lettuce but can come in the color red when they're on strawberries right there yeah that's an aphid so hard to see wow there's an aphid right there there's a bigger this is a mama aphid right oh you found that other one he's a team oh this is it's not even Mama this guy is not even barometer yet this is not a mama aphid this is this is a teen that right there is an aphid and they will reject an entire field just for one aphid on a lettuce head because those things stick even when you wash they don't come off in the wash they say if you add soap then it makes it a lot easier for them to come off and that's why a lot of cautious people tell you they're washing soap and then power wash each Leaf um but they're really tough to get off so watch it why not what's wrong we checked 50 lettuces okay we got 50 okay and then at the last step of the process we had to we checked this is his idea to check under the light which kind of put them in a what is this what is this organization called so that you have to be extra strict and we found a really deadly bug what's it called it's called aphid aphid on the camera again forgation but uh it's called aphid and we found it under the light a little baby which means his mama not so far and then we had to cancel from the field so so now we're not gonna be approving that field and now we're in a different field all right we're going to field number 23 now okay I have no idea how they know which which field is what put that down now chop some wood out of about 40 heads we found 10 heads with thrips so this is actually a good field it's a dangerous position oh there okay so that's a thrip right there [Music] on the inner bottom leaves inside don't even know that let's be it's like it's got like different like protrusions it's pretty sure it's what it is the ribs are much less of a problem than aphids rips wash off plants much easier than aphids the aphids stick very very closely to the plan and are very hard to wash off therefore in order to take off an aphid you need to use soap because soap makes the plant slippery and then they fall off the correct way to make sure your romaine lettuce is aphid free according to the CRC is to fill a large bowl with water and add dish soap or kosher veggie wash solution enough to make the water feel slivery [Music] then separate the leaves and agitate them in the soap water and let it soak for a little then the leaves should be removed and the water should be checked for any floating bugs if no bugs are found check three leaves under a good light source and if still no bugs are found just rinse the rest of the leaves and you are done Presto this same process can also be used with other problem vegetables such as spring mix fresh dill and parsley kale and strawberries just cut off the green tops of the strawberries beforehand please well I hope you learned a lot about bugs on lettuce but it's almost time to go but before you go I want you to check out some of my favorite footage from the trip from one of the best surf spots in the world Santa Cruz check it out [Music] here it's gone [Music] foreign [Music] thank you