On Feb 14, 2008, at 5:03 pm, Robert Kesterson wrote:

>> 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.  :-)

Well you two are still alive so I guess it must be pretty safe.

>> 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).

We have a vegetable compost heap that is home to a decent size family  
of voles.  If we had any manure, would you add it to this heap?  Or  
start a manure heap?

Sounds like soil is pretty safe after all.  I was expecting a few  
horror stories :)