Ran across this little tidbit of info tonight while reading Cooper Rutledge's "Backyard Battle Plan- the ultimate guide to controlling wildlife damage in your garden": "...the level of rat and mice contamination in popcorn that is considered acceptable by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is: 1. one rodent pellet per sample or one rodent hair per two samples or 2. two rodent hairs per pound or twenty knawed grains per pound or 3. hairs in fifty percent of the samples."

Coincidentally, in an effort aimed at both health- and budget- improvement, as well as reducing packaging destined for the landfill, I stopped purchasing prepared snack foods last year. Although I do not garden much, due to my travel schedule, I did experiment with growing small plots of both sunflowers and popcorn. Both were successful, but did not come close to meeting our needs, so I have been buying popcorn and sunflower seeds. I think this year I will try to squeeze in a really BIG plot of popcorn. Yuck

-- Elizabeth (ekfla@aol.com), January 19, 2001

Answers

Response to contaminated popcorn

As I look around at my house (cat hair everywhere , one cat walking through with a mouse in her mouth - I hope it's either dead or on its way outside!-, crumbs from a few day's meals-vacuum cleaner died and no time to sweep lately, my nails dirty from work today despite a washing, and other day to day ickyness) I am suprised that anyone is even bothered by this type of info. I mean, for all intents and purposes, any contamination will be sterilized by the flaming hot oil that popcorn is cooked in, and in any case people who protect themselves from exposure to ills get the illest, as their immun systems don't stay strong.

So I say bring it on - I'm a homesteader! I eat tomatoes fresh from the garden (no doubt dusted with some sort of residues of nature despite my organic habits) and I even have been known to actually chew green beans off of the vine without picking them first (how's that for fresh). No telling how many bugs have traipsed across them! Still I live on, despite nature's best efforts to date.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), January 19, 2001.

Response to contaminated popcorn

I know this happens and would rather not think about it .If we knew of all the bugs we ate on a daily basis we would all barf.Just think of it as free protein.

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@slic.com), January 19, 2001.

Response to contaminated popcorn

Wow. Soni, I'm impressed. I frequently stand in the garden and eat fresh beans (unwashed, even!), but I always PICK them first. lol! I don't want to reproduce the whole book here- that would be boring and probably violate some silly copyright laws, but- "...remember rodents can carry over 30 diseases, and have fleas. (doesn't everything?) Serious diseases......are plague..hantavirus, leptospirosis...blah...blah....blah".

-- Elizabeth (ekfla@aol.com), January 19, 2001.

Response to contaminated popcorn

Good point about the oil, though. Hadn't considered that.

-- Elizabeth (ekfla@aol.com), January 19, 2001.

Response to contaminated popcorn

Since rats generally inhabit dumps and sewers (all manmade waste areas), I wonder how many diseases we give them? Ahhh, the cycle of life. Beautiful, ain't it!

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), January 20, 2001.

Response to contaminated popcorn

You know, I eat beans off the vine in the garden too! And, when friends come over to pick raspberries, I tell them that if they want to munch, go ahead. Just pick those on the upper branches as my dog waters them regularly!

-- Ardie from WI (a6203@hotmail.com), January 20, 2001.

Response to contaminated popcorn

Hmm...I pulled half a cut worm out of my son's mouth when he was 10 months old. The oldest ate a cricket. My youngest used to eat roly polys. That is only the stuff I caught them eating!! Probably ate plenty when they played under my feet in the garden! Haven't you ever been out haulin hay and eatin a sandwich or a cookie or something? I normally wash my hands at the house(I am a tidy Di), but I admit to munching out in the garden. I know what I fertilize with...Hmmmmm...nuf said.

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), January 22, 2001.

MY youngest ate a spider,

-- Thumper (slrldr@aol.com), January 24, 2001.

oh, yummers. My sis used to bite worms in half while following Mom around the garden. EEWWWW. Of course, we all used to "find" gum to chew in all sorts of fun hiding places! I'm in awe of the human immune system. I figure that if I can live through my childhood, little I run into as an adult can do me much harm!

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), January 25, 2001.

A good laugh every day heightens the immune system! So If you have to sing that song...No body loves me......going out to the garden to eat worms. Just make sure you do a huge belly laugh to compensate, Right? Couldn't hurt!

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), January 25, 2001.

When my twins were little, and crawling, I was visiting my mother one day and found them both sitting at the dog's bowl, munching down dry dog food. YUK. I just about freaked out, but my mother just calmly said "everyone eats a bushel of dirt in their lifetime" and moved the dog bowl. Maybe she was right.... Jan

-- Jan in CO (Janice12@aol.com), January 25, 2001.