Takes some believing.........

[MINESAPINT]

You may recall I posted to say when I got new neighbours a few years ago as a gesture I took them a bucket full of gorgeous organic Pentland Dell spuds. A couple of weeks later I was talking to her daughter and asked how were the potatoes? The reply was "mummy threw them out because they were dirty".

The latest is they have been on holiday recently and upon their return were advised by the gardener or handyman that a rat has been spotted on their vegetable garden. The result is that all crops still in the ground, potatoes, leeks, runners, sprouts, cabbage etc have to be destroyed in case the rat has urinated on any of the produce!

[Milims]

So are they also going to take out all the soil, give it a good bath in dettol and put it back again? What planet did you say these people were from? Don't know which shocks me more - their stupidity or the fact that they actually have a veg garden!

[ina]

Leaves me speechless!

But then, I suppose they would have chucked all their produce out anyway - it would have been dirty, having been grown in soil...

[Millymollymandy]

I suppose their children have all sorts of allergies and illnesses too because they've probably never been exposed to any dirt!

[Enormous Sage]

I better throw all my veggies away as I use horse manure on my veggie patch.

I've been growing food in horses poo! I might catch something!!!

[StripyPixieSocks]

Good grief, such is the age we live in!

[KellyB]

OMG I know people like that exist but thankfully I have never met one

[pumpy]

My step-dads first wife suffered from the illness,whereby she cleaned the house non-stop.(A bit like the Forth rail bridge: finish at one end & start back at the other.) He loved to grow (& still does) his own veg., but because she would not allow them in the house,because they were dirty,he gave them all away......year after year. She served all their meals with tinned veg. How sad.

[mrsflibble]

So are they also going to take out all the soil, give it a good bath in dettol and put it back again? What planet did you say these people were from? Don't know which shocks me more - their stupidity or the fact that they actually have a veg garden!

Jamie Oliver did it, Huge Furry Whipping-Tool did it, therefore it's the cool thing to do don't you know.

[oldfella]

And theres me peeing on my compost heap.

[Peggy Sue]

Well I find it more shocking that people on our allotments throw out cabbages because a rabbit nibbled a few leaves, or throw out carrots for being too small/strange shapes- that has got to be the power of supermarkets!!!

[StripyPixieSocks]

Well I find it more shocking that people on our allotments throw out cabbages because a rabbit nibbled a few leaves, or throw out carrots for being too small/strange shapes- that has got to be the power of supermarkets!!!

You wouldn't believe it would you? everything has to be perfect these days and yet I remember when I was small eating odd shaped vegetables and Strawberries straight from the plant but everything these days has to be uniform and sterilized! Any wonder allergies are on the rise? All this super clean stuff is bad for you!

[eccentric_emma]

It is bizarre how odd some people can be. Somebody on here mentioned that they overheard people talking in a shop saying 'why on earth would you grow your own food, how do you know its safe to eat??' which i thought was crazy! Personally after the recent salmonella infected tomatoes in the US, i think its probably safer to grow your own!

I have noticed though how since getting my veggie box full of weird and wonderful shapes and lots of glorious dirt, I have got a lot healthier. Not that I've been scoffing the dirt or anything but I'm not too particular when scrubbing veggies just a quick scrub will do to get most of it off! But I've barely been ill this year which is a first for me.

[Big Al]

I better throw all my veggies away as I use horse manure on my veggie patch.

I've been growing food in horses poo! I might catch something!!!

That's a good idea... well if you listen to my cousins ex wife.... I took a big box of organic produce for them to try and happened to mention that they were groen with horse muck. She didn't use them but there again they lived on greggs pasties and frozen food from herrons....

[Ellendra]

My step-dads first wife suffered from the illness,whereby she cleaned the house non-stop.(A bit like the Forth rail bridge: finish at one end & start back at the other.) He loved to grow (& still does) his own veg., but because she would not allow them in the house,because they were dirty,he gave them all away......year after year. She served all their meals with tinned veg. How sad.

One of my great-great-grandmothers was like that, everything that passed through the house had to be cleaned and sterilized. It wasn't until after she died that her closest relatives admitted the reason: she was a typhoid carrier! She'd caught it as a child and could have infected anyone at any time for the rest of her life, but she never did. All 11 children, and countless grands and great-grands, not one ever showed symptoms thanks to her paranoia.