Embrace the Odd Shape

Spend any time talking to food producers and you will eventually hear words about the waste that comes from consumers (that's you, the shoppers/buyers) who just refuse to buy odd shaped food.

This is not really a new concept, but it seems to be getting worse. Shoppers won't part with cash for food that is not looking like it came from a photo shoot.

As consumers many of us have become rather pathetic at seeking our fruit and vegetables to all come in a standard shape, colour and size. Our potatoes can't be too big, or too small, the eyes on them can't be too deep. Our apples must be blemish free and not show any signs that they may have actually grown on a tree.

Ever tried to grow carrots? I have and rarely did they grow perfectly straight and never did I get a bunch that looks like the ones I buy, but they were all eaten and tasted perfect.

Perfect looking fruit and vegetables are fine, but nature doesn't follow the factory ways. There are sticks and stones and bugs and birds and sometimes heat or rain which all influence how a plant grows and what it produces.

So here in Australia we are left with TONNES of perfectly good food that no one wants. It also means I can't pick through the spuds for the giant ones when we are having Hot Potato night at our place, because there are none, the supermarkets reject them as too big.

Your kids won't have fun peeling funny looking carrots or eating a giant strawberry one day and a teeny one the next.

I was feeling all annoyed at how I couldn't even choose to buy the odd shaped stuff anymore, all my local fruit and veg shops have gone quite high brow, selling quinoa on the side lines. But then I saw this NSW business with an entire campaign on odd shaped food.

Genius.

There just might be a future for those foods that don't fit the the criteria of perfect yet.

I have been embracing my own odd shaped frame for some time, now it's time for us all to embrace the odd shaped veggie too, yes?