Eating and Marketing Less Than Perfect Fruits and Vegetables

Header image: Grimes Golden heirloom apples with sooty blotch and flyspeck fungi. From The Little Half Acre homestead.

Should I be concerned about eating blemished or misshapen fruits and vegetables from my garden?

If I want to sell produce from my garden or farm, should I even consider offering less than perfect fruits and veggies? Will folks buy them or get turned off?

So, should I consider raising hybrid fruit and vegetables that may be resistant to insects and fungi? Or (gulp) do I need to spray with pesticides and fungicides so I'll get a harvest of attractive, perfect produce?

You don't have to use pesticides and fungicides if you understand that misshapen or "ugly" produce is often only cosmetic.

And raising heirloom varieties give you the advantage of putting back seeds for the following seasons. Why worry about that? Some of you may remember the seed shortages in the Spring of 2021. It can happen again whenever thousands of people get nervous about their food security and start new gardens.

Next to personal safety, food security-- just like your own guaranteed source of clean water-- is the highest priority you can have.

Many of us are conditioned by the bounteous displays we see in our big-chain supermarket produce sections. We want and expect perfect fruits and vegetables.

Here's a blog post from Jackie at The Little Half Acre, "The Truth About 'Ugly' Fruits and Veggies" which explores why some people are conditioned buy only perfect fruit and vegetables.

She also talks about her experiences using organic practices to raise and market produce that, due to bad weather, insects and other critters, may be less than perfect, and gets geeked about her first crop of Grimes Golden heirloom apples.

Jackie finds that her savvy customers at local farmers markets and her CSAs will gladly accept less than perfect and misshapen fruits and vegetables-- because they know where the food comes from, and that they're safe because she raises them with organic practices.