Unless you have cows roaming through your sprout plots or you add raw manure just before harvesting or you send your sprouts to an unsanitary factory for packaging YOU WILL BE FINE.

E.coli is everywhere. Dangerous E.coli is not. It is, in fact fairly rare and only is a concern when raw sewage interacts with your food. If you do use crude fertilizers at home, don't harvest for a week or two after adding it to your garden. Sunlight and natural soil bacteria will kill/out-compete the bad microorganisms.

Don't bleach your produce. You don't have to do anything more than wash home grown vegetables. I suggest short warm/hot rinse (helps remove bacteria) followed immediately by a cold rinse to keep everything crisp.

This was asked a while ago...
but there is Chaco Cayon now, at 3770 SW Alaska Street

Pacific Rose apples are tasty and very similar to Pink Ladies, and are usually cheaper, although they're not as common. I wish I could tell you where to buy them, but I don't live in Seattle. They are grown in Washington, though, so you should be able to find them.

Madison Market (central co-op) has very good local/organic Pink Ladies for $2.19/lb.

To find out what's in season in your area at any given time, all you have to do is go check out the farmers market. right now, according to Chris Curtis (NFMA director) who sends out weekly emails, you can get:

Chioggia Beets – From Willie Green’s Organic Farm – at all markets

Tatsoi- Mild tasting Asian green – great sautéed and fresh in salads – at all markets

Garlic Chives

Komatsuna – Japanese Green from Mair-Taki Farm at UD

Shungiku – Edible chrysanthemum leaves from Mair-Taki Farm at UD

Lovage – Green leaves and stalks that taste like celery – From LetusFarm at UD and CC

Maitake Mushrooms – Cultivated – earthy flavor and meaty texture – “like scallops” - a farm premiere variety from Cascadia Mushrooms at the UD

Lettuce – Green and Red Leaf, Oak Leaf, Red Romaine – large lovely heads – at all markets

Asparagus

Rhubarb

Garden Starts: Veggie Starts: Tomatoes, Cukes, Peas, Corn, Beets, Lettuce, Greens, Broccoli, etc.

Herb Starts: Tarragon, Basil, Rosemary, Chives, Orange Mint, Chocolate Mint.

Flower Starts for home gardens. Berry-Bearing Shrubs; currant, gooseberry, blueberry

VEGETABLES:

Beans –Dried Shell Beans – Cranberry, Black, Cannellini, Fava

Beets - Chioggia

Cabbage

Carrots – sweet and tender

Celery Root

Chard – Green and Rainbow

Garlic

Garlic Chives

Greens – Tatsoi, Lovage, Chrysanthemum, Dandelion, Rapini, Miner’s Lettuce, Sorrel, Wood Sorrel, Chickweed, Baby Bok Choy, Collards, Turnip, Mizuna, Arugula, Spinach.

Raabs: Cabbage, Broccoli, Kale, Rutabaga

Mixed Braising Greens

Herbs – Catnip, Mint, Tarragon, Rosemary, Chives, Cilantro, Parsley

Jerusalem Artichokes

Kale – Green and Purple

Leeks

Lettuce – Red Leaf, Green Leaf, Oak Leaf, Butterhead, Romaine

Onions – Yellow and Bunched Green Spring Onions, Salad Onions, Scallions

Parsnips

Peas – very first of season- limited quantities - at UD

Potatoes – Rose, Red Lasoda, All Blue, Cal White, Red Norland, Russet, Viking Purple, Maris Piper, Yukon Golds, Fingerlings, German Butterball, Yellow Finn

Radish – Red Radishes, Easter Egg Radishes, Daikon

Rutabaga

Sprouts - Sunflower

Shallots

Turnips

This is a tough time for apples, because the normal harvest time is fall, so only varieties that keep in storage will be available now. Pink Lady is one of those. But the price will be higher. You might try a Braeburn if you can find them, or a Fuji if you want a little sweeter.

A good place to look for cheap produce is your neighborhood fruit stand. Not a farmers' market; while those are great, their prices are high. I'm talking about the seasonal places that are opening up around town just about now, like Top Banana across from Ballard High School, Rising Sun across from Roosevelt, Yakima Fruit Market up on Bothell Way, or MacPherson's on 15th S in Beacon Hill.

Also, if you can get to an Asian market, their prices on all kinds of produce will blow you away. Viet Wah in the Rainier Valley, HT Market at 100th and Aurora in the old Larry's building, or a couple of dozen places in the ID.

Oxbow Farm's got rapini, radishes, baby arugula, and our last year's storage parsnips comin' to ya tomorrow at the Ballard Farmers Market! AND 1000's of tomato starts! All kindsa varieties.

With this spring, things are gonna be slllooooowww to fruition. Stay tuned...

The availability of local (and thus seasonal) produce is going to depend a lot on where you shop. Washington tomatoes may be in season during late summer, but you'll never find them at your standard grocery store. Most grocery stores source their produce from companies that can provide the same type and level of produce year round, so even though something may be in season in Washington state- it doesn't mean that that's what you'll find at the grocery store. There are a few exceptions- Town & Country Markets as well as Metropolitan Market seem to be the best. Otherwise you can shop while looking for "local" type labels, although be warned- Safeway is known for calling Washington apples "local" in Alaska, so it's not really a fool-proof method. Some stores may consider California local.

Get yourself to a farmers market and go crazy. Always local, always seasonal, always crazy fresh, and almost always better priced than the grocery store.

Asparagus. Mushrooms. Rhubarb. Cauliflower.

Beets coming soon.

you can buy online form http://challahnmore.com

Morel's are my favorite. If you find anyplace, please share! Sometimes when they are in season you can find a place that will put them on a pizza, like Cafe Flora or something.

Pabla Indian Cuisine in Renton is certified Kosher, but it's no where near Capitol Hill. It is delicious though. The Pabla in downtown is not related and not kosher.

Teapot can be really good, but service is hit or miss.

You can also look for Halal-certified places. Or ask if they are Orthodox Union certified

The hill itself is lacking, aside from Teapot Veg.

elsewhere:

the U district Noah's bagels.

Mawadda down by Seward Pk.

Wild Ginger has SOME kosher dishes.

But the real kosher enclave is Mercer Island: Island Crust is a pizzeria/deli that's VERY kosher.

I Love NY Deli has a downtown location. I thought they were opening a branch on Capitol Hill, but I guess it's not open yet. They do cater though. Their website says "Kosher style" I don't know if that means actually Kosher or the way 'cheese product' means not cheese.

I've eaten at their U-district location several times and it is ridiculously good. Plus the owner is super nice and entertaining.

http://www.ilovenewyorkdeli.net/

According to urbanspoon you've got slim pickings:
http://www.urbanspoon.com/f/1/37/Seattle/Kosher-Restaurants

But here are a few more options:
http://www.seattlevaad.org/Restaurants___Caterers.html

I don't believe there are any actual kosher restaurants in Seattle. The closest that I know of is the Noah's Bagels in the University Village.

You would probably be best trying out one of the Hill's vegan joints. I can't personally speak to the quality of the place, as I avoid vegan restaurants like the plague, but I have read good things about:

Plum Bistro

www.plumbistroseattle.com/

Talarico's will make you some spaghetti or pizza without cheese or meat. But yeah, seems overdue for a vegan place.

Wow, I have been wondering this myself lately!
I loved the creative veggie Dim Sum at Vegatarian Bistro and was very sad to find out it closed.
Teapot and Vegan Garden don't have Dim Sum, but I am excited to try NW Tofu per alight's suggestion. I just wish they were open past 5:30!

We sell it at Yakima Fruit Market.

grand central's is OK if it's fresh

Also I believe you can get it at "Upper Crust Bakery" in Magnolia.

Macrina, both in QA and Belltown... Metro Market carries their bread but not all kinds so I wouldn't count on them having it.

Wait, really? How do you know this exactly? I know lots of vegans, and most of them have no pets at all. I was vegan because it made me feel better. I'm no longer vegan, because sometimes eating a bite of ice cream is worth feeling like shit.

Cats are carnivores. Dogs don't have to be, and neither do humans. What other animals are carnivores? Birds, fish, rodents...? Not seeing the connection.

Speaking for myself, a vegetarian, not a vegan, I feed my cats meat because they are carnivores. People are omnivores and can live without meat.

Not all vegans think meat is murder. Some vegans don't eat meat because of dietary reasons, or economic reasons, or environmental reasons. Or because they just feel like it. And not all pet food contains meat.

I'm assuming you don't know any vegans, because you could have just asked one of them how they justify it. Yet, how do you know that vegans usually have a lot of pets if you don't know any of them personally?

Life is full of mysteries.

Mac 'n cheese. Maybe even double doses of easy mac.

Doritos.

Teapot doesn't do dim sum. Sadly, the really good veg dim sum place, Vegetarian Bistro, closed recently. Might try Vegan Garden, in the ID. They are owned by the folks who ran the Bistro.

Tea Pot on 15th is vegetarian and Chinese they may do dim sum.

Northwest Tofu, at 19th and Jackson. They make their own tofu daily, and there's a whole page of veg/tofu versions of standard dim sum dumplings. The salt and pepper tofu is delicious, as is the green onion pancake. Most things are available with pork or chicken, too, so omnivores won't feel deprived.
It's not very pretty inside, but the food's great, and really cheap.