On Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:45:41 -0600, Gale <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> It's hard to imagine bad things happening from eating a very small  
> amount of soil as you note.

Agreed.

>  We grew up eating directly out of our garden.  As kids we would often  
> wander over to the garden and eat carrots that we merely brushed off -  
> onions too.

My kids still do that.  So do I.  You're never too old for that.  :-)

> Of course we never fertilized the garden, so there were no chemicalsor  
> manures on our vegetables.

None that you put there on purpose, anyway.  :-)

There are always animals, insects, and microbes depositing their excrement  
all over the place.  Personally, I do fertilize our garden, using  
composted chicken manure.  The key word is composted.  By the time it gets  
to the garden, the chicken manure has been composting, outdoors, for at  
least six months, usually more.  By that time, the worms and soil microbes  
have turned it into something that looks like the crumbly dirt of the  
forest floor.  I wouldn't dream of putting raw animal manures directly on  
the garden (which is what is said to have happened in the recent packaged  
vegetable cases you mentioned).

--
   Robert Kesterson
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