This is an interesting link

[conuly]

About the surprising difficulty in donating "unpretty" produce to the poor. The part about half of food grown in the US being wasted has to be hyperbole, though. I know we waste a lot, but surely it isn't that much...?

Comments

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Between here and Olympia (twelve miles or so), I can point out to you seven to nine apple trees that have the rotting fruit still clinging to their boughs or lying in the grass.

There were so many apples this year that we couldn't deal with them all, so some of our own trees had the same problem. (And we know damn well that they're unpretty enough nobody will take them.)

We have carrots still in the ground that will be plowed up with spring plowing and wasted onto the compost pile. (Twisted, forky, possible worms. Unpretty again.)

I'll buy it. (We give away all we can to friends tolerant of nonpointy carrots, small or scabby apples, open-pollinated corn and so forth, but much still goes to waste.)

[conuly]

Well, now, that's depressing.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

The problem is that everyone wants that Hollywood-perfect produce. (If people had the same standards for dating/marriage, the human race would die out.)

You'd think the world was ending every time anyone has to cut a worm or a bad spot out of something before you eat it.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

I've struggled to teach my husband that lesson. He used to reject an apple because of a friggin' bruise!

Under my tutelage, he's getting better. That, and I've just taken to preparing food so that he can't see the original state before he eats it. :-)

[leora.livejournal.com]

Yep. This house has a fruit tree (persimmons) and it has, i think pears, hanging over from the street. I don't eat them. I have food issues. I wanted to eat them, but I can't. In fact, the less connection I have with my food's origins the better. I'm fairly sure it's mild OCD issues, but some of the childhood experiences with the sources of food have left me permanently unable to eat certain foods. The less I see and think about it the better. I know this is irrational, but anyhow.

A neighbor wanted to take some, and we gladly let her. I let my parents take some persimmons. But lots of the fruits will just fall and be wasted. At our last house we did use some of the lemons (the thick skins of lemons and oranges, the fruits we had, made them okay for me), but we honestly could not use nearly as many lemons as we grew. I even made fresh lemonade once when I had a guest. But I personally don't like lemonade. I use a bit of lemon in a recipe here or there, but short of lemonade, how do you use up oodles of huge lemons? And I couldn't get them to my parents as often as I'd have liked to.

I live in California and tons of houses have some sort of food growing tree. I see little fruits falling down wasted onto the sidewalk whenever I travel in a particular direction. Many people end up with some random food with their rental, whether it's one they will use or not. But it's too small scale and too much effort to get it to someone useful.

And while it's wasteful, at least some of it may be used. Which makes it a lot less wasteful than a lot of the other crap people plant in an area prone to droughts.

[conuly]

You can use lemons to make lemon meringue pie.

As far as California goes....

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/12/fallen_fruit_1.php

[leora.livejournal.com]

*nods* And I'm fairly sure people do something similar in the general bay area. Although the persimmons can't be scavenged, nor could the lemons or oranges, because they don't hang over. In fact, you'd need to get into a gated section of our backyard to access them.

And while I could have made pies. it's not like it's something I could have done often. A project like that would have pretty much been what I did with several days worth of energy, which simply isn't practical. And nobody else I lived with baked. However, now we just have the persimmons on our property, and hopefully we can get them to people who want them.

They don't have as much of a growing season, from what I can tell online, so it shouldn't be as much of an issue. The lemon tree had fruit all year round. Large, beautiful, abundant fruit. Which meant we always had lemons, but dealing with surplus was also a constant issue. I expect the persimmons to only fruit in the winter (what we call winter here, anyway).

[fjorab-teke.livejournal.com]

Been there, been instrumental in it. People who really are having a rough time are truly grateful for the food. As long as it's not rotten, we tended to give out a surprising amount of food that weren't pretty or fresh enough to sell. Of course, if it's too far gone, there's no way I'd expect anyone to eat it. It's amazing what goes to waste out there. It's also amazing what's picked up and distributed.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Between here and Olympia (twelve miles or so), I can point out to you seven to nine apple trees that have the rotting fruit still clinging to their boughs or lying in the grass.

There were so many apples this year that we couldn't deal with them all, so some of our own trees had the same problem. (And we know damn well that they're unpretty enough nobody will take them.)

We have carrots still in the ground that will be plowed up with spring plowing and wasted onto the compost pile. (Twisted, forky, possible worms. Unpretty again.)

I'll buy it. (We give away all we can to friends tolerant of nonpointy carrots, small or scabby apples, open-pollinated corn and so forth, but much still goes to waste.)

[conuly]

Well, now, that's depressing.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

The problem is that everyone wants that Hollywood-perfect produce. (If people had the same standards for dating/marriage, the human race would die out.)

You'd think the world was ending every time anyone has to cut a worm or a bad spot out of something before you eat it.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

I've struggled to teach my husband that lesson. He used to reject an apple because of a friggin' bruise!

Under my tutelage, he's getting better. That, and I've just taken to preparing food so that he can't see the original state before he eats it. :-)

[leora.livejournal.com]

Yep. This house has a fruit tree (persimmons) and it has, i think pears, hanging over from the street. I don't eat them. I have food issues. I wanted to eat them, but I can't. In fact, the less connection I have with my food's origins the better. I'm fairly sure it's mild OCD issues, but some of the childhood experiences with the sources of food have left me permanently unable to eat certain foods. The less I see and think about it the better. I know this is irrational, but anyhow.

A neighbor wanted to take some, and we gladly let her. I let my parents take some persimmons. But lots of the fruits will just fall and be wasted. At our last house we did use some of the lemons (the thick skins of lemons and oranges, the fruits we had, made them okay for me), but we honestly could not use nearly as many lemons as we grew. I even made fresh lemonade once when I had a guest. But I personally don't like lemonade. I use a bit of lemon in a recipe here or there, but short of lemonade, how do you use up oodles of huge lemons? And I couldn't get them to my parents as often as I'd have liked to.

I live in California and tons of houses have some sort of food growing tree. I see little fruits falling down wasted onto the sidewalk whenever I travel in a particular direction. Many people end up with some random food with their rental, whether it's one they will use or not. But it's too small scale and too much effort to get it to someone useful.

And while it's wasteful, at least some of it may be used. Which makes it a lot less wasteful than a lot of the other crap people plant in an area prone to droughts.

[conuly]

You can use lemons to make lemon meringue pie.

As far as California goes....

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/12/fallen_fruit_1.php

[leora.livejournal.com]

*nods* And I'm fairly sure people do something similar in the general bay area. Although the persimmons can't be scavenged, nor could the lemons or oranges, because they don't hang over. In fact, you'd need to get into a gated section of our backyard to access them.

And while I could have made pies. it's not like it's something I could have done often. A project like that would have pretty much been what I did with several days worth of energy, which simply isn't practical. And nobody else I lived with baked. However, now we just have the persimmons on our property, and hopefully we can get them to people who want them.

They don't have as much of a growing season, from what I can tell online, so it shouldn't be as much of an issue. The lemon tree had fruit all year round. Large, beautiful, abundant fruit. Which meant we always had lemons, but dealing with surplus was also a constant issue. I expect the persimmons to only fruit in the winter (what we call winter here, anyway).

[fjorab-teke.livejournal.com]

Been there, been instrumental in it. People who really are having a rough time are truly grateful for the food. As long as it's not rotten, we tended to give out a surprising amount of food that weren't pretty or fresh enough to sell. Of course, if it's too far gone, there's no way I'd expect anyone to eat it. It's amazing what goes to waste out there. It's also amazing what's picked up and distributed.