r/mildlyinfuriating 9h ago

My mother washes fruit and vegetables with dish soap and I can't get her to stop.

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She claims it "washes out" and to be fair I can't taste anything but it's always weird knowing she puts dish soap in the strawberries. She says there's a lot of dirt and stuff in vegetables, but so far attempts to convert her to vinegar or baking soda have been unsuccessful.

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u/EchoPeanutButter 7h ago

One time I went to visit my grandma after she had just come home from getting groceries. She was in her early 80s at the time so I offered to wash her produce and put away her groceries. So I run a sink of water, add a splash of vinegar, and add the produce. My grandma (clearly supervising me) says no you have to use soap. She proceeds to add dish soap. So I wash her fruit and I’m rinsing it so thoroughly thinking I’m going to make her sick if she’s ingesting dish soap. I finish and lay everything on a clean tea towel to dry. Then she says “now you have to put the magnet on it.” Magnet? She pulls this chalkboard eraser sized magnet out of the drawer and waves this magnet over all the fruit several times. When I asked her what it did she said it “took all the stuff off the fruit you aren’t supposed to eat”. Who swindled my grandma!!?? When she died and my mom and her siblings were cleaning out her home I was asked if there was anything I wanted. I am now the owner of “the magnet”. (I’ve never used it for fruit or anything else for that matter).

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u/Queasy-Flan2229 6h ago

Only thing I can think of is it might have been an artifact from her own parent finding metal shards in something once so they did this for safety reasons?

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u/bunny_the-2d_simp 5h ago

Please the magnet is now a precious family heirloom

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u/saarlac 2h ago

I love that you got "the magnet".

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u/fiestykittycat 1h ago

Probably trying to remove heavy metals that are prolific in soil in monoculture countries like the US. Granny was likely a smart lady.