blekkkkkk!!!!

Went into my garden and picked my lettuce for my salad. Peeled back one of the leaves and there was a slug just sitting there. OK....YUKKKKKKK!!!!!! I like gardening, but I wish it could be done without the bugs. Then I carefully rinsed all of the leaves front and back as usual, and into the strainer fell another slug that I somehow missed. I just threw the whole leaf away. I'm glad I'm thorough about washing things that I pick out of the garden...wouldn't have been pleasant to bite into a slug. Yeesh. My hubby just laughed at me and said "they're full of nutrition"...but he's never eaten one....

Some folks, I think soak the lettuce and cabbage (the types that head up) in the sink with salt water? Maybe I just dreamed that up or my grandmother used to do or say it...

Salt would certainly melt the slug.... but I think just submerging greens in regular tap water should make most hitchhikers float away. I don't like the slime that slugs leave behind either, so I probably would've thrown the whole leaf away too. Knock on wood, but I've yet to bite into a slug! But at dusk I was out stuffing myself with the mulberries that I'd just discovered had ripened, and I'm sure I ate a few bugs that I couldn't see, LOL... but wow, those berries were gooooood! Now my fingers are purple.

Noobie,

I'm with you on that one! I hate slugs! EW!!!! I get nervous peeling the silks and husks back from the garden corn but luckily I've not found anything too nasty. I usually cut the ends off just because of small worms that nested up top. I am sure many would throw the whole cob away.

I'll have to remember to rinse those heads of lettuce!

Yes, I put my broccoli, cabbage, lettuce in salt water in the sink. If there are any hitchhikers who made it in the house they are quickly dispatched.

I made some mulberry milk today, it was wonderful! I take the mulberries, soak them for 10 minutes in salt water to get all the bugs out, then muddle up a half cup in a glass, add some ice cubes and a teaspoon of sugar, then fill with milk, stir and enjoy! My girlfriend prefers to blend them into a smoothie, but it tastes fine to me just over rocks. I promptly filled my birdfeeders to thank the locals for dropping those two trees into the yard... And the Oriole came by to enjoy the peaches and orage slices. Maybe he'll bring another tree this year :)

Noobie, I used to live in southern DE (land of 3000% humidity) and we'd get giant slugs crawling on the walls inside the house. My one housemate called them "ickies." I usually don't mind creepy crawlies of various sorts, but these were pretty nasty.

Slugs ARE full of protein, though...and just think, people pay big bucks for escargot in French restaurants...you could have picked those puppies off the lettuce and dipped them in garlic butter and YUM! :)

Mikekilhoffer, great idea for the mulberries...mine are still green, but will definitely try making some mulberry milk when they are ripe! :)

pam

I will definitely try the saltwater thing. But as far as eating the slugs....YYUUUUUKKKK. I can identify with the term "ickie". They make me gag just looking at them.....ISSHH.

That mulberry milk sounds good....send some my way.

Yeah, there's no way I'd eat a slug, either...or a snail, for that matter...think I'd rather put garlic butter on some rubber tire and eat that. :)

pam

LOL LOL LOL Pam.....I'm with you.....and the tire would probably taste better!!!

Read this interesting article... www.sciencenews.org/articles/20020629/food.asp

Interesting Sunny!

We haven't seen slugs in the garden here but I'm sure they are around. We have stink bugs!!!! It was one of the characters featured in Bug's Life. But these suckers have a sharp strawlike mouth they stick into my maters for a nice slurping snack. Still...the birds peck way more than the stink bug. All for the love of gardening!!!!!!!!!!

Noobie, if you come up my way in the next couple of weeks, there should still be plenty of mulberries on the trees! When's your next salon appointment? :-)

Mulberry milk -- great idea! I especially liked the part about soaking them to get the bugs out... I am sure I get more extra protein than I want to think about when eating them. I did pick a bunch one year and smash them through a strainer to get the seeds out, then make sorbet.... it was fabulous, but waaay too much work to do on a regular basis unless I figure out some shortcuts. The mulberry milk sounds easier, and just as delicious!

Agrrrh, once I picked a bunch of lettuce for a wilted lettuce salad. I washed and washed it until I thought nothing could possibly be in it. I made my salad and ate about half of it and bit into a Rollie-pollie bug. YYYUUKKK, still makes me gag every time I think about it.
I love wilted lettuce salad fresh from the garden, but that thought comes back to haunt me each time I try to eat it, and I just don't enjoy it like I used to. What a shame.

Just think Peggy, you could make it on "FearFactor" now! You have experience.LOL

I'm just glad I had heard of the soaking in salt water trick and wasn't delusional...or maybe I am--just not about that.lol

You don't even have to salt the water. Just immersing the greens in water will do the trick. Fill a big bowl with water. Put your greens in the water. Swish them around. Lift them out of the water. Spin dry. Eat.

Even without the added benefit of removing slugs and snails, I would wash garden greens this way because its the only way to get all the grit and dirt out of the leaves. I hate gritty greens.

I need a salad spinner. Where can you buy one?

I found a salad spinner at a thrift store for $ 1.98 and it's great.
I suppose Wal-mart has them, but they're worth whatever they cost (they're not expensive). I hate it when your lettuce is all wet and dilutes the dressings.

noobie,

the best one is at Bed Bath & Beyond and is made by OXO I think, instead of a handle you have to spin the whole time it has 1 big pump handle on top that is black rubber so your hand won't hurt. I think it's like 20 bucks. Walmart also sells a cheap one that does the job but isn't as fancy.

Noobie, I may have an extra one.... I found one with a crank at a garage sale, then the next year found one with a pull string at a rummage sale, and I liked the pull string one better. But the crank one worked just fine, and I'm think it might still be in the basement if it hasn't gone to Purple Heart.... I'll try to remember to look for it tomorrow, but please give me a nudge via Dmail. Of course, you might prefer a new one -- OXO makes great gizmos!

Thanks guys! I'll look into this. I am a little bummed as my last surviving grandparent, my paternal grandmother, I think is in the last phase of her life. She has dementia, and her health is quickly fading. Her 91st birthday will be this Sunday, if the Lord allows her to live. I can't be there, but my parents will be by her side. I will miss her terribly. My dad asked me to write her eulogy, something I can't bring myself to do right now.

Sorry to digress. Critter, I may just take you up on your offer for a salad spinner. I have been drying mine in a paper towel, which doesn't work too well.

Major bummer, noobie...but I'm glad you had her this long...hopefully her dementia was mercifully brief. Best thoughts to you and your family.

pam

Praying for you & your family, noobie..... that's rough. I've spoken at a couple of memorial services, and it's heartbreaking, but it's important to have somebody say words that allow everyone to focus on the person's life, to smile in remembrance.... even now, take some time when you're worrying over your grandmother to look at some old photos, or tell your kids a goofy story about her.... in your memory, she can always be well and strong and beautiful!

On a happier note -- I just checked the basement, and I found the salad spinner! I'm glad it hadn't been donated yet... I kept thinking somebody would want it, and I was right. :-)

Save it for me! I think we are going to make a special trip there just to hang with you. My stepson (I hardly call him that) leaves on Sunday for about two weeks. But when he comes back on the 17th, I think I will come that way. So hold onto it for me!!!!!

Will do!

My folks are coming down on the 18th, probably just staying for a night or two, and somewhere around the 20th (dates could flex a little as the cycle progresses) we'll be doing embryo transfer for IVF, which involves a day or so of mandatory bedrest for me. So, it might have to be a little more toward the end of the month. But I'm looking forward to a chance to visit with all of you!

OKAY!!!

I heard a story about the man who started OXO....his wife developed artritis in her hands and he wanted more easy handled kitchen gadgets for her to use. Isn't that sweet!

This whole thread reminds me of a joke we used to tell as kids.

"The only thing worse than finding a worm in your apple is finding half a worm."

That happened to my mom once. She didn't eat apples for YEARS after that. She eats them now, but checks them for holes first. LOL

If any of you have been following the coffee thread over in Parking Lot you've heard this already...but...this morning I found half a worm...i.e. beetle grub...floating in my oatmeal. Needless to say the rest of the bowl went down the disposal. I might be eating toast for breakfast for a while.

Serves me right, I guess. :)

LOL
pam

Phuggins....ewwwwww!!!!!!

noobie - i think you would have better luck if you grew your lettuce in containers.

don't have the space anymore. We just put up a huge garage on a huge concrete slab. I still have my garden and the kids have room to play, but all the extra space I could have used for container gardening is now gone. :(