I go out of my way to make sure I get soil bits on my self-grown organic garden produce. I cured my stomach ailment/bowel problems almost immediately ( three days), after about a year of suffering with loose bowel movements. I had the idea of just eating my produce raw, and un-washed from my microbe-rich, well balanced mineral-rich soil. I found a mixture of soil supplements that were created by my local Yelm Worm Farm, in Yelm,Wasington 98597 that I added into my soil/garden. The balanced soil, along with a "soil soup (microbe-rich) watering of my garden, caused the perfect storm in my soil that caused my raw, unwashed, veggies to be the petfect medicine that cured my bowel illness.

I had tried all kinds of yogurts, homeostatic soil organism pills, vitamins, probiotics in pill-form, and none of those things worked for me. ONLY my soil from my garden on the un-washed vegetables did the trick. I did not eat a lot of the soil, just little micro bits that were left on the carrots, beans, peas, lettuce, cabbage, etc. I did not wash my own produce.

When you think about it, when was the last time you saw a horse or a cow wash it's vegetables? There is a natural balance of organisms that are needed to have a healthy body/bowel.

If I pick ANYTHING from my garden, I eat it right then and there. No wash. I even remember crunching on a few pieces of dirt. It was an awful experience at first, but it's not too bad now.

As stated, I definitely wash all conventional produce I may buy in the store. But if I get anything grown local and from good quality soil, I eat it raw/dirty.

This came up in a Microbiology class I recently took (I had a teacher I liked and respected). She said that germs are everywhere. Don't worry about being too clean or trying to add more to your life, there are enough already on every surface everywhere.

Now, that being said, I don't wash my organic sweet potatoes. I am actually too lazy to wash anything, BUT I don't go out of my way to eat dirt.

I don't wash my farmers market produce. I don't wash a lot of my organic produce, but that's mostly because I am lazy. :). I do rinse conventional produce, and sticky produce (aka tomatillos and anything that feels "off")

I absolutely wash them. What I pick up at the farmer's market still traveled in potentially unclean crates and boxes, in an unclean vehicle, and handled by sometimes questionable hands. (I watched a boy take his finger out of his nose and touch a pile of strawberries this morning. GAG!)