UGLY FOOD MOVEMENT

The “ugly food movement” is taking off around the world, particularly in Europe and Australia, as an answer to the problem of food waste. So far, it has yet to firmly take hold in the United States, but given this country’s love of solution-driven food trends, it seems a good bet that ugly food might soon take its place beside local food, organic food, and environmentally conscious eating. “Ugly” foods are those that sellers and buyers often reject because of their appearance, like misshapen vegetables and bruised fruits. Farmers dump them. Supermarkets and restaurants reject them. Consumers historically have avoided them.

The problem of food waste is no joke. By some estimates, a third or more of the food produced globally goes uneaten. The costs are in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Marketing so-called “ugly” food is one answer to the problem. Until recently, the European Union had rules actually preventing the sale of oddly sized or misshapen produce. Some of the rules were hilariously granular: a spear of asparagus could not be sold unless at least 80% of its length was green. The curve of cucumbers was regulated down the millimeter.

The U.S., perhaps not surprisingly, has been slower than Europe to take up the trend, but there are some early indications that it might take off here. Bon Appetit Management, a big food-service company owned by the gigantic Compass Group USA, last year launched Imperfectly Delicious Produce, a program to divert ugly foods from the waste stream to the restaurants and cafeterias the company serves.

Large scale efforts like this are rare in the United States so far. Until recently, most “ugly” food that wasn’t simply thrown away has been given to needy people, though efforts like the Food Recovery Network (which Bon Appetit works with) and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Food Recovery Challenge. And such efforts of course do help. But if the private sector can be moved to make “ugly” food not only salable, but commercially popular, that would go a long way toward reducing the shocking amount of food our country wastes.

MARKET CHITCHAT

New & Relisted
Products

• Fresh Picked Figs from Mary’s Peeps
• Basil -from Hawkins Homestead is relisted
• Leeks From Avalon Farms
• Kale Stems from Bain Home Gardens
• Mixed beans from Hawkins Homestead
• Pea tendrils!!!! Salad addition and garnish
• Cut Prewashed Curly Kale from Bain Home Gardens
• Bone broth from Hawkins Homestead
• Okra from Avalon Farms
• Aloe Vera Leaf from Bain Home Gardens
• Lemonade from Hawkins Homestead

THIS WEEK’S GROWER NOTES

We have the best Growers in the Wiregrass! Please learn more about them on our Grower Page.

AVALON FARMS: We have had a wonderful time this week hanging out with all our kids! (How did they get that old?!?) Hope you had some quality time too.

The 3rd planting of squashes and cukes are starting to produce. The excessive rain has made it difficult to keep them weeded. You can’t really use tools like hoes or wheel hoes when the soil is wet. So this week I resorted to hand pulling the weeds in the rows and mowing the middles. Now it’s a cover crop of sorts. Sometimes you just work with what you have.

Planted my winter squash this week. Yes, it does sound silly, but winter squash actually are a warm weather crop just like regular squash. I’m guessing they are called winter squash because they store and are then available in the winter.

Just moved my young chickens onto garden 5. They will scratch up the soil, eating bugs and weeds and deposit all that wonderful chicken litter (manure/poop). That means this garden is off limits for quite a while. USDA Food Safety says we can’t grow crops here for 90 days AFTER we move the chickens. Seems excessive but we are all about our food being healthy and safe.

BAIN HOME GARDENS: Marketeers!
    Ok so it seems our little break was right on time. My body decided to take a break too! “It’s all a part of aging”, so I’m told.  Since I wasn’t able to supervise garden activities, it gave me an opportunity to expand our website. Yes you heard correctly – we now have a website! Feel free to check it out: bainhomegardens.wordpress.com. I’m happy in this new niche. Just call me the gardener/writer/blogger. It has been very enjoyable for me to say the least. So what is going on in the garden?
Lettuce & Spinach
We are absolutely determined to master this summer lettuce thing. Just because we are in the South doesn’t mean we don’t deserve fresh, organic lettuces! Am I right? In our research, we have attained much information. Now it is time to put it to work. We have had some success but will not be listing any lettuces just yet. Soon. In the meantime our summer spinach is taking off! That is still available in our Summer Salad Mix. I like it – a lot!
Kale
Surprisingly all varieties of our kale are pushing through the summer heat thus far. We are supposed to be blanching and freezing for later but who can resist a fresh kale salad? Not me! As a result, we have also begun using our kale stems in various ways. In fact kale stems are a new listing this week.  Have no idea what to do with them? Check our recipe here.:

Before we sign off, we really want to thank all of you who came out to support the last day of the Spring Farmers Market. Your love for fresh produce was evident as you came out sweated and laughed with us. It would have been more comfortable to go the local “air conditioned” grocery store but you chose us. So on behalf of Bain Home Gardens, and I’m sure all the  vendors of the Market at Dothan, thank you marketeers for your support!

HAWKINS HOMESTEAD: Hello Market friends!! Welcome back! Did you see it?!? We are now offering our organic  bone broth on the Market! Made using our organic chickens, it’s a wonderful way to treat your body good. We know not everyone has time to make their own bone broth, so we’ve done the work for you. We hope you love it!

Also new for us this week are our mixed beans. As always we grew these without chemicals or sprays. We have spent time shelling them and placed them in a beautiful mason jar, especially for you. We got this idea from one of our customers! Thank you!

Want to beat the heat? Try out our lemonade along with some fresh salsa from the garden! This salsa is all organic with a splash of lime juice! Both are so refreshing and delicious! In addition our basil is back! Sold by the quart. Grab it today.
Recently we announced a new price structure on our Facebook page and we have also completed our price restructuring through the Market. You guys know that we hold ourselves to a very high standard when it comes to feeding our birds and growing food. We love that we are able to bring healthy, fresh, organic food to you, and we hope to continue to do so. With that being said, what you may not know is the price you pay on The Market at Dothan is not the amount the growers receive. Each grower pays a different percentage for their Market share. It’s like the cost of doing business.

The Market connects us with all of you and it provides a service that gives so many growers access to a broad range of people and the people access to us. Since we farm on a small scale, we have to be strategic about what we grow, how we feed our animals, and how we organize it all. We want you to know that your continued support of us and the Market is why we’re here. Of course many growers, including us also sell direct, so you have options.

Lastly within our restructuring we announced that we would no longer be offering our chicken through the Market. This was a hard but necessary choice for us. Since then Roslyn has given us some ideas to try and they may work. We’re just not sure yet. It would mean more work for all of us, but we are trying. Again, we appreciate all of you and we thank you for choosing the Market at Dothan and us.

MARY’S PEEPS I am going to list figs on next weeks order, and weather cooperating will be able to fill orders. If not I will delete orders, please understand in fruit such as figs they are very perishable in unpredictable weather. Hopefully they will continue to produce well. We expect to have more blueberries too! Thank you, Mary’s Peeps, Mary Dale Peeples Echo, Ala.