Killer Lettuce!

[Waxing_Gibbous]

Something radical organic, vegetabl-ists won't tell you: Lettuce can kill!
As surely as spoiled chicken salad or an iffy prawn, dodgy lettuce will put you in the ground. Especially that organic, preservative-free crap.

I and 10 others around here fell afoul of an organic salad last Monday and we spent the past week decorating the local hospital with our colourful...er...phrases.
I've been a 'semi-organic' for yonks, though usually with meat and fish rather than veg. I think after the last week though, I shall demand chemicals on my cauliflower!

Docs informed us that even when thouroughly washed, many "organic" veggies can still harbour various strains of e-coli and unpleasant, even deadly, fungal spores and bacteria. in the past these would have been killed by various chemical means.
Apparently medicos are seeing more and more cases of poisoning from bacterias and what-not that haven't been seen for 80 years. Almost all of which are directly attributable to "organic" food.

Every preservative and anti-biotic used in Australia on 'commercial' food is utterly benign (unless you are actually allergic to it). You are far more likely to suffer ill-effects from organic produce than regular (so we were told). To add to this, the effects from untreated produce are infinitely worse than anything you might encounter from a commercial carrot.

To add insult to injury, "organic" food has NO nutritional advantage. None. Zip. All you are doing is paying extra for dirty sprouts and the increased chance of fungal poisoning resulting in spasticity, blindness, liver damage, brain damage and/or death.:screwy:

[multiweb]

Probably depends on the number of snails in it when they pick it up. Anyway it is a proven fact that people who eat their vegetables all die. :P

[M54]

Oh! That's nasty.

I hope your feeling better now Peter.

[Waxing_Gibbous]

Much better. Ta.
Eating tinned everything now though! :D
The irony is, I started on this health-lark after a nasty spell last year.
All I can say is drinking, smoking, eating steak, potatoes, chocolate and foie-gras have NEVER put me in hospital!

[M54]

:lol::lol::lol:

[Suzy]

Oh my....
I have taken heed of your warnings Peter, thank you. Very interesting indeed.
I'm sorry to hear you were so ill, and from lettuce of all things :screwy:. I laughed madly at your smoking and drinking comment :lol:.

I'm not sure how true this is, but I don't buy anything organic because someone once said to me that they were pumped up with hormones. I've been too scared to touch them since that. Don't quote me anyone, as I said, I don't know if this is true.

[Bassnut]

Do you eat snails?

[gbeal]

Look on the bright side though, I'll bet you lost some weight, LOL.
Sorry to hear it wasn't a pleasant business though.
Gary

[multiweb]

Yep - lov'em!

[Bassnut]

Bloody French. Oh, and do they make telescopes ?, or anything that doesnt involve getting pissed or looking good on a catwalk?.

[TrevorW]

Shame the cane toad isn't edible otherwise there may have been a few crawling around Marc's way :P

my main diet

steak - nuked but not charcoaled
thick cut chips crispy on the outside fluffy in the middle oven fried
a nice tossed un-organic salad of well washed lettuce, tomarto, cucumber, olives, cheese and sliced sweet chilli's

eaten with a glass or two of red wine to kill all those bugs

followed by apple pie and cream

[Waxing_Gibbous]

Well done Trev!
As a matter of fact, I love snails!
Heaps of Garlic, butter and herbs, and accompanied by pain rustique and washed down with a outrageously expensive Cheval Blanc!
Perhaps a side of chemicaly treated Asparagus.
That's never made me ill either, come to think of it.

Fred, Fred, Fred.....
I am as Francophobic as the next Englishman , :D, but even I have to bow to their culinary wisdom........

[GTB_an_Owl]

my uncle used to get the snails out of his flower garden and put them in a cage and feed them up with lettuce leaves and the like, then soak them in a saucer of milk in the fridge. don't know if he did anything else to them before he ate them

geoff

[multiweb]

:lol: You must have some French ancestry somewhere then southo man. Better fix that hairdo for the next catwalk though. my 2c :P

[casstony]

The risk of fungal contamination is higher at this time of year - everything stays damp most of the time and there isn't much direct sunlight to kill off the fungus and spores. Lettuce grown in the normal spring/summer probably isn't going to pose the same risk.

I've gotta go get some copper spray to save a young hibiscus that's been hit with spores from decaying autumn leaves.

[multiweb]

Actually you need to starve them. The correct term is jeûner les escargots. Basically you keep them in a wooden box with mesh on the side, well aerated for 5 to 6 days. That causes them to dehydrate and loose all the mucus. Then as Peter pointed out, shells side up with a bit of butter and garlic in the oven. No more no less. It's a very peculiar taste. Nothing to compare really but it's very nice.

I think people go yuck because they think of slimmy slugs. But then again we do it seafood, even raw. Same stuff.

[TrevorW]

Marc, what type of snails, I was under the impression the common garden snail was inedible

[multiweb]

They're called Escargot de Bourgogne and you're right in saying they are especially bred to be eaten. I mean we eat meat from cattles we buy from a butcher, not road kill so it's the same, you wouldn't go about eating your slimmy garden snails... yuck! :)

[Waxing_Gibbous]

True.
A Prawn or Crayfish is little more than a giant, sea-going woodlouse. :D

[ving]

organic... just an excuse to put prices up. :p

[AstralTraveller]

NO no no. Don't feed them lettuce! They might get sick and wind up in hospital. Can you imagine a snail trying to get to the toilet in time?? :rundog:

[multiweb]

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

[kustard]

Now that I'm working in the food industry I've had to become trained in food preparation and handling and one of the big things is making sure lettuce and especially mesclun (that mixed salad you get a lot these days) is correctly stored and checked for degradation.

And just recently a friend of ours suffered some very bad food poisoning and initially it was thought to be from incorrectly cooked chicken but was found to be from the mesclun side salad not being as fresh as it should have been.

[multiweb]

I think that with all the prepared microwaved crap we're being served in supermarkets our immune system red lights if it doesn't see some MSGs or E110 or E124 artificial colouring coming down the pipe. :question: :P