Finding Gluten Free Soil for Vegetable Garden

[00missymiller]

I'm newly diagnosed with celiac, although I've been in terrible pain for decades. I'm glad we finally figured it out, but certainly am overwhelmed adjusting to the new lifestyle (there are a lot of tears). I'm starting a garden this year so I can feel confident about at least the food that comes out of the 4x8 raised box in my back yard. My husband just built it for me, and I couldn't be more excited about it. Imagine my dismay when I started calling around to locate a few yards of organic soil to fill up that box, and learned that many of the organic soil mixes around here use clippings from the  wheat and barley fields that make our craft brewery industry so robust. (I mentioned there are a lot of tears, right?) So ... I'm not sure how to fill this big beautiful box. Logic tells me I don't want to grow my vegetables in a bed of gluten, but I also don't want a big box full of chemicals. Has anyone else been through this issue? Have you found a way to make sure the soil in your gluten-free garden is also gluten-free, and has the organic nutrients your vegetables need to grow healthy? Certainly I can (and will) start my own compost, but that will take awhile, and I need a quick solution to fill this box quickly. 

[kareng]

18 minutes ago, 00missymiller said:

I'm newly diagnosed with celiac, although I've been in terrible pain for decades. I'm glad we finally figured it out, but certainly am overwhelmed adjusting to the new lifestyle (there are a lot of tears). I'm starting a garden this year so I can feel confident about at least the food that comes out of the 4x8 raised box in my back yard. My husband just built it for me, and I couldn't be more excited about it. Imagine my dismay when I started calling around to locate a few yards of organic soil to fill up that box, and learned that many of the organic soil mixes around here use clippings from the  wheat and barley fields that make our craft brewery industry so robust. (I mentioned there are a lot of tears, right?) So ... I'm not sure how to fill this big beautiful box. Logic tells me I don't want to grow my vegetables in a bed of gluten, but I also don't want a big box full of chemicals. Has anyone else been through this issue? Have you found a way to make sure the soil in your gluten-free garden is also gluten-free, and has the organic nutrients your vegetables need to grow healthy? Certainly I can (and will) start my own compost, but that will take awhile, and I need a quick solution to fill this box quickly. 

While that might seem scary, the gluten that might be in the soil will not be in your tomatoes or carrots.  if they had a bit of soil on them,  you would wash it off.  

[00missymiller]

I'm not worried about the gluten being in the vegetables, but on them. I'm also skeptical that just washing them off would suffice. You think it would be ok?

[RMJ]

The gluten in wheat/barley is in the grain, not the stalks/leaves.    I definitely would NOT worry about a tiny bit of grain that might contaminate the clippings, that are just a portion of the soil, that will be washed off of the vegetables.

[kareng]

1 hour ago, 00missymiller said:

I'm not worried about the gluten being in the vegetables, but on them. I'm also skeptical that just washing them off would suffice. You think it would be ok?

On the very slight chance there was actually a gluten molecule on the tomato, it should wash off.  If gluten didn't wash off, I think we would be glutened all the time!  If you are really worried, I have found that white vinegar and water seems to dissolve wheat flour so it washes off.  White vinegar is gluten-free, but I don't know what kind of dirt it's grown in.

But if you are that worried about it, get different dirt or grow hydroponically?  We buy food and have no idea if the soil had left over wheat stalks in it.  My antibodies are negative.