Watercress

Keep taking the tablets Guys and Galls.
Spread the 'bug thing' as it could bring the price down. Or is that me being a synical old bug--r.
ttfn

 

Evening, owg ... why, is it expensive there?

 

Its not a bug that you can become immune to. Its a parasite. Liver disease is dreadful - you feel so very ill and weak for such a long time. I got hepatitis more than 30 years ago and the memory has not gone away.

You are perfectly safe eating properly grown, properly washed water cress that comes from a clean source. If you want to eat any other - that is entirely up to you.

 

Looks like my first question one here has germinated well :eek:

watercress, the healthiest natural super food available (quote T&M).
Has now turned into a potential KILLER!

 

Markr: :D :D That's life!

I thought about growing watercress as we eat lots of it, but without flowing water, I think you might well have problems with stagnant water so I decided to stick to the supermarket variety.

Oh, with added chemicals of course! :D

 

looks like the chemical sort for me too
unless i try the land cress,,,
but thats another ???

 

You will have to assess the risk yourself as I am no one's nanny. Just be aware that a liver fluke is a nasty worm not a flu germ. Clearest explanation can be seen here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/ask_the_doctor/sheepliverfluke.shtml

"The parasites live in the bile ducts within the animal (cow or sheep) and produce eggs which are passed out in the animal's faeces. These develop into tiny worms which are picked up by an intermediate host which is a snail, living in the field where the animal is or in the water supply the field drains into.

After a while the snail passes out the flukes which settle on to nearby vegetation, forming cysts full of parasite which can exist for up to a year in the right conditions.

Humans can catch the fluke infection when they eat contaminated vegetables. The cysts pass into your small intestine where they open to release small worms which penetrate the wall of the intestines and move to the liver, finally ending up in the bile ducts, where the life cycle starts again. Sometimes the worms end up in the lungs or skin instead.

One of the most common sources of liver fluke in the UK is watercress which, during the farming process, is fed from contaminated streams containing snails which carry the parasite. Farmers work hard to eradicate this problem but it still exists in places."

 

I know the crowd who grow most of the 'chemical' water cress sold in the UK and I can ASSURE you that it is grown on gob-smackingly clean borehole water, thoroughly tested, and the majority grown without any pesticide use whatsoever - it has to be as a main client is M&S. Eat with confidence. As for my patch...well I don't think I'll try selling it to Jamie Oliver for his kids just yet :D

 

Hornbeam, im glad you let us know' its not something that ive heard of before.
so now i can tell the wife, forget the water cress, get me lager instead :D

 

Oh and thanks HB for the excellent info as ever!

 

What an interesting topic.
Thanks for the research links Hornbeam.
I knew about sheep liver fluke but had never heard about the connection with water cress.
I reckon I've been lucky as I must have drunk gallons of mountain stream water and in many instances there must have been a dead sheep somewhere upstream. But isn't it reckoned that fast flowing water purifies itself? (May be an old wives tale).
I had started to surmise that if there wasn't a sheep or cow within a mile or so garden cress beds would be safe. But then I thought that birds could possibly spread SFL by eating infested plants or snails and "dropping" the bugs elsewhere.
I think we'll stick to the cress we grow on wet paper towels in containers on the kitchen window sill.

 

We grow this on damp kitchen paper, on a tray, on the window sill. When I say we, I mean the kids. Tastes great too.

 

well if thats the case then the "gob smackingly clean beds" are just as much at risk. Its not the water cress that is the problem, but the flukes that are likely to be on any vegetation. Basically it would appear that they need pond snails and cows or sheep to complete their life cycle.
The stage which is infectious to man starts off on sunbmerged stems and then persumably climbs up them where it can then be eaten.
Link http://www.path.cam.ac.uk/~schisto/OtherFlukes/Fasciola.html
Water cress does not have to be grown in standing water. You could grow it on very damp ground, which would, I persume not have the pond snails.]
I should think that if you can avoid having pond snails and cattle or sheep having access to your water cress beds then you should be OK. Both are needed for the fluke to complete its life cycle. The stuff grown on window sills is not cress, even though the supermarkets sell it as that. It is rape. Cress gives a much more peppery taste, which is nice.

 

"The stuff grown on window sills is not cress, even though the supermarkets sell it as that. It is rape. Cress gives a much more peppery taste, which is nice."

The cress WE grow from seed Lepidium sativum is true cress as opposed to rape Brassica napus. It does taste jolly nice on a salad sandwich. We seldom use the supermarket stuff. I appreciate that true water cress Nasturtium officinale has a much more peppery taste (a bit too peppery for my own taste), but then I'm not all that keen on capers either.

 

All the above is a bit technical for me at the mo. However, are we now talking about Water Cress which one eats in tossed salads or Cress (mustard and cress), the stuff we have with our egg salad? Totally different creatures, but I'm not going to look up the Latin names now ... tomorrow ...