I heard a tale recently about a lady in an eastern state who gave her toddler a bunch of grapes. As the child was eating, a spider crawled out of the grapes and bit him. It sounded like an urban legend to me, and sure enough I checked the Snopes site tonight, and there it is along with several variations involving snakes and coats.

I came pretty close to living out that urban legend at over the weekend. For a party, my friend and hostess had finger food catered. There were lots of avoids in the form of breads and chips. I had eaten before the party, and planned to snack only beneficials and neutrals. There was a good veggie tray, and an amazing assortment of summer fruit. I filled my plate and began to nibble and visit.

I noticed that there were spots on the grapes, but I assumed that they must be hard water spots. It never occurred to me that a caterer would serve unwashed fruit. Then I pulled off a grape, and underneath was a spider web. No spider, and certainly no bite. This is my real life, not some urban legend.

But I confess it made me lose my appetite. Any rinsing of those grapes would have dislodged the spider web. I was eating grapes fresh from the field, sprayed with who knows what. I looked at the strawberries and blueberries, now suspicious of them as well.

I'm pretty zealous about washing produce at home. People who pick fresh fruit and vegetables do not have sanitary facilities in the fields. Non organic produce needs to have any pesticide residue washed off. Organic produce needs to be washed even more thoroughly because of bacteria in manure and other natural fertilizers.

I blogged some time ago about my method of washing produce, and I won't repeat myself today. If you need instructions, you'll find them at this link

http://www.dadamo.com/bloggers/h/archives/00000301.htm

There is no good way to end this blog. I do not want to become so fanatical that I refuse to eat away from home. But it is disconcerting to find that a caterer, who also owns a restaurant, has such low food handling standards.