One of the blessing/curses of my new job is that I get to take home produce that we can't sell. This has been coming in the form of scarred zucchini, avocados on the edge of browning, bruised MacIntosh apples, sad looking beets, etc. My rescue and conserve impulses are being stretched to their ends with all the waste that goes on with produce. I made two huge loaves of zucchini bread, put zucchini and leeks in my pasta thing, I have borscht on the stove right now, had two avocados for dinner last night, and spent about a half hour last night just peeling red peppers that I had roasted to save them from becoming garbage. So this definitely isn't sustainable. I can't be a one-woman garbage-to-food conversion operation indefinitely. But the waste! If my tiny organization is making this much waste, I can't even contemplate the chain grocery stores and their garbage. And it's amazing what people won't buy even though it's perfectly fine. And admittedly, I won't buy a zucchini with scars all over it, I'm usually pretty suspicious of it. But the way we get our produce doesn't even resemble what food actually looks like when it comes out of the ground. Someone made a joke about organic oranges at work yesterday, and apparently it was funny because they're so hard to get/make/find. Organic bananas might be an oxymoron, too. We'll see. There's a whole world of produce industry crapola I have to learn about.
But anyway I definitely attach a certain level of morality to waste, ie, it isn't just a shame to throw away stuff, it's wrong. And don't get me started on refrigerators, either - nobody needs a refrigerator as big as we have them. Personally I'm starting to feel that no one needs a freezer, either. So many adaptations we've made to convenience just to become crap-buying garbage-makers who are too good for scarred zucchini, oh lordy I'm getting fired up about this now, better chill out. Anyway it's 6:30 in the morning and I'm going to work to buy produce, that I hope we will sell all out of to people who will eat it and not end up throwing it away. Cheers!
Any way to get those avocados to me before they go bad? Can you freeze avocados? If you mush them?
ReplyDeleteI'm having a hard time with avocados (they just got expensive). They're so good for Lily.
Also, I might have agreed with you on the freezer before I had a baby. Freezer is essential for breast milk.
James just told me about your blog. Hope that's OK.
OK, sorry, had another thought.
ReplyDeleteThere's no way to donate produce to like a soup kitchen or something? Will they not take it for the same reasons you can't sell it? Seems strange.
Indeed, donations and stuff all happen, but there's a limit - some stuff like half mushy cucumbers feel bad to give away, and some of it is timing . . . but maybe I can make part of my usefulness at my job be about amping up the donation situation! Don't freeze avocados, you won't like it. Completely fine re: knowing about the blog, I thought I told you about it, too, that's funny! Welcome to my head.
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