grapefruit seed extract

[Christina R.]

A friend of mine works for an orchard that bottles organic apple juice and cider. She told me they have been using grapefruti seed extract instead of bleach for sanitizing their processing equipment. The owner sends things down to the state for testing about once a week and there haven't been any problems in bacteria counts etc.

I'm thinking about giving it a try as my hands are toast with the bleach and my husband is always concerned about what the bleach water is doing to the bacteria in our septic tank.

Right now I follow fiasco farms recommendations with the bleach water solution. Have any of you heard about GSE or are using it now instead of chlorhexadine or bleach?

Thanks for your info.

In case you are interested, here is a site I found:

http://www.pureliquidgold.com/

[pygmywombat]

Is this to sterilize milking equipment with? I was told never to use bleach or any commerical dairy cleaners on my single cow milker because it was too harsh on the tubes and seals and the commerical cleaners weren't safe to use at home in the laundry tub. I use plain old, off brand dishsoap and hot water. Grape seed extract sounds pretty neat. I have also heard of using hydrogen peroxide.

[Christina R.]

I milk by hand, so the bleach is for the bottles I put the milk in, plus the pail, funnel, lids, etc. Fiasco farms talks about either boiling equipment or using that solution to let it soak in for 2 minutes then air dry for 15.

[JulieLou42]

You can use GSE in the milk at a rate of 16 drops per gallon instead of pastuerizing.

[Christina R.]

Wish I had known about GSE before I bought our pasteurizer!!! I think I'm going to give it a try as a sanitizer for the bottles. I'm sure it won't be as harsh on everything (my hands, our septic, ect) as bleach. Thanks for the info.

[JulieLou42]

I have a niece in Campbell, TX who has spent a lotta years studying herbal and supplemental remedies, homeschooled her three children [now young adults] who tells me that GSE is being used in dairiies for mastitis prevention AND cure.

I use it several of the ways recommended on the literature that comes with it from NutriBiotic.com.