I don't claim to be an authority of any kind, but I can tell you, having grown up in a rural area and having, as a child, eaten around just about anything (and having eaten my share of accidental worms), none of that stuff has ever done me any harm I know about, and I think if it doesn't taste bad, I'll eat it.

In fact, I often find the bad-looking produce to be the best-tasting.

So I come down on the side of don't throw anything out just because it looks less than perfect. Man, I work so hard for the stuff I grow I'm gonna eat it unless some other creature gets there first!

Yes. I was listening to Felder Rushing's radio program a few years back when his co-host was a dear and knowledgeable, born poor as dirt, black man named "Dr. Dirt". Someone called in asking about their peach crop that had some kind of mold or crud or whatever. Felder, the horticulturist, advised on cultural conditions, chemical preventatives, etc. Dr. Dirt said "cut out the bad spot". It took me back to my Grandma's house and was like a slap on the head. Homegrown produce doesn't have to be perfect looking (like the supermarket's) to be perfectly good eating. Changed my whole attitude.

It's funny -- in fact when I shop at farm stands I often find myself gravitating to the funny-looking tomatoes, the ones with the crevices and beginning cracks, because my experience has always been that they taste better. Of course now these are known as "heirloom" tomatoes, but back when I was a kid they were just home-grown.

Also the "seconds" sold routinely at farm stands in my area for half-price or less are usually yummier than the perfect ones, for the simple reason that they're riper. Yes, they won't last as long, but they taste better.

Thanks for the replies. I'm not concerned about the aesthetics of the food, just don't know if eating tomatoes with TMV or blight, or peppers with BER would make us sick. Stuff like that. We've eaten many tomatoes this year that the squirrels took a bite of. I was just glad they left some to share!

I suppose I would have heard "the rules" before if there was much of anything to worry about. I have just glossed over discussions about diseases and chems for so long, I realized I didn't know enough about diseases to answer my own curiosity since these always got tossed before. People often ask "how do I get rid of this" but I don't remember reading any discussions about "can I still eat this?"

Thanks!

BER on any fruit: cut off the part of the fruit that shows the BER. The rest is fine to eat.

Late Blight: If the vine shows symptoms but the fruit looks fine, the fruit is good to eat. I don't remember what's recommended when a tomato has an obvious spot of Late Blight -- whether it's okay to eat the part that looks good or not, or whether the seeds from the good part can be saved. Cornell's site has the most thorough advice about Late Blight:
http://www.longislandhort.cornell.edu/vegpath/photos/lateblight_tomato.htm
There's probably a link somewhere on that page to advice about Late Blight on potatoes.

Sun scald on tomatoes: Eat the good part.

I would think that plant diseases are very different from human diseases (we're in completely different kingdoms!), so it would be very unlikely that, say, TMV would infect a human.

I think if there was anything very dangerous you could get from garden vegetables, we would be hearing about it. The media gets us all scared about so many things, I'd be surprised if they didn't spread the alarm all around about something like this.

The main thing I'm scared of are parasites, but then again I've been watching that show Monsters Inside Me on Animal Planet that got the idea in my head. There's some sort of a bad parasite you can get from snails, and I sometimes harvest greens and herbs that I find snails in. I think I've caught all of them so far before they got eaten, but sometimes there are really tiny baby snails that could be overlooked.

But with all the food recalls, finding E. coli and salmonella in such innocent-seeming things like canteloupe and spinach, we're probably actually safer eating stuff we grow ourselves.

Amen to that. When you grow it, you KNOW what's in it: chemicals, herbicides, manure (the source of those salmonella outbreaks). With regard to disease, the fruit that's not good for you would also not be palatable. I personally think there's far more to fear from what we cannot see, taste, or smell. Grow it safely and well, give it a good wash, cut out the bad parts, and enjoy.

Commercial food isn't as healthy as it used to be. The nutrient level has dropped badly in the last half-century, and more of the foods have a lot of spray contaminants on them. Today, when a baby is born, it has over 200 foreign chemicals already in it's body!

Also, I would like to tell you about an old Ann Landers (advice) column from many years ago:

A woman wrote to Ann and said she and her husband went to a dinner party given by her husband's boss. The food had all been grown and cooked by the boss's wife [good woman, that!].

Everything was wonderful until the lady got to the dessert, which was peach melba. Halfway through the dessert, she found a worm in the peach. She didn't know really what to do, so she just ate all around it and then turned the remnant over so no one would see the worm. She asked Ann Landers what she should have done.

Ann's reply: "Anyone who will eat around a worm in a peach to avoid embarrassing her hostess doesn't need any advice from Ann Landers!"

Sue

Q: What's more disgusting than biting into an apple and finding a worm?

A: Finding half a worm..

I also employ the cut around it method for nearly everything. Obviously if you grab a fruit and it smushes in your hand, just compost it, but tiny spots or small insect or vermin spots are just cut around and eaten.

I also think it is natural and good for the human body to take in harmful bacteria and viruses from time to time. Too many people rely on synthetic antibiotics everytime they get a sneeze and their own bodies natural defenses weaken as a result. I eat food off the floor, share with my dogs, whatever... gotta give that immune system a workout every now and again.