An idea inspired by a "wonky carrot" is putting dollars back into people's pockets.

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A wonky carrot was the catalyst for a food-delivery company that’s now saving shoppers an estimated 30 per cent on a weekly shop – approximately $20 a week or $1040 a year. Not only that, the company inspired by an ugly vegetable is now turning over eight figures in the process.

When Josh Ball, 30, noticed the carrots at a local Melbourne market weren’t uniformly straight like the ones in the supermarket, he got curious. He discovered that 2.4 billion kilos of produce is left on the farm each year, just because it’s not picture perfect.

It was the lightbulb he needed to set up Farmers Pick with his friend Josh Brooks-Duncan, 29. They collect the less photogenic produce from farms and sell it direct to the consumer at a discount of around 30 per cent.

When Taste compared the items in a Farmers Pick family-sized box to the prices being charged by one of the leading supermarkets, it was a saving of $34.35 – nearly 40 per cent cheaper.

“Supermarkets reject 30 per cent of produce because of how it looks, not because of how it tastes or its freshness or any of the other reasons why we eat food,” Ball says.

Farmers Pick started when they visited a farm and chatted to the farmer, who pointed out a paddock of cauliflower that was destined to be rejected because it was covered with dirt from the tractor or the florets weren’t close enough to be aesthetically pleasing.

“It opened up our eyes to how big an issue this was from a food waste perspective,” he says.

“We bought it, put it in a box and sold it. When we started talking to people about it, they said they don’t care how it looks because they’re going to cut it up anyway.

“We twisted the arm of 10 friends and made them buy it. Then word spread on community groups and it scaled organically.”

When it comes to unrealistic beauty standards, it’s a case of the chicken or the egg. Do consumers avoid the wonky fruit, or is it that supermarkets don’t give us the choice to buy them? “I think it’s a combination, which comes from an agreement between the farm and buyer of what good enough means,” Ball says.

“We are naturally visual animals and make judgements on what we see rather than what we can taste. We default to a big red tomato, but a perfect tomato is one that tastes really good and is fresh. We need to reconsider our definition of ‘good’ in this case.”

How does it work?

Farmers Pick estimates it saves customers 30 per cent on a weekly shop – approximately $20 a week or $1040 a year.

A small, medium, large or family box is delivered weekly or fortnightly. Customers get what’s available, so it’s super-seasonal and based on what is oversupplied or is considered a little wonky, blemished or generally less good looking.

Pros are that the produce is fresh, often 48 hours after being picked at the farm, and delivered to your door. A con is that the box may not have everything you need and a supermarket top-up is in order.

“We come out from a farm first angle to really move produce that’s oversupplied. Off the back of the cyclone, it was really windy in Queensland so we had lots of blemished products, while Melbourne was sunny and had lots of fast-growing cauliflower,” Ball says.

“Every week we curate a recipe to help people tackle something in the box, especially if it’s a bit obscure. We had a massive influx of yellow squash recently, so we provided a recipe for it. There are over 100 recipes on our website.”

Farmers Pick offers the option to subscribe, making it set and forget, and customers can also add pantry items such as eggs, pasta and coffee.

“We buy short-dated products that have been over manufactured. Recently we bought three pallets of John West tuna, it was discontinued from Coles and it would’ve gone to waste, so we sold it at a discounted rate,” Ball says.

“If it’s because of over production, we can offer it at 50 per cent off. At the moment, we have Lavazza coffee at 60 per cent off the retail price.”

Farmer Pick started during Melbourne lockdown and the co-founder were working full time and visiting farms on weekends. Ball’s tech background in sales and marketing was a match for Brooks-Duncan’s experience in logistics and supply chain.

It now delivers 130 tonnes of produce to 10,000 households along the east coast of Australia every week and has relationships with 70 farms nationally.

“Some farmers were skeptical at first. Why would we want something they’ve been told is a waste product for the last 40 years? But we want to purchase what they are throwing out that’s completely fine. Sometimes it’s just oversupply. It was a hot March, so there was oversupply of cauliflower and zucchini, which we bought,” Ball says.

The ongoing cost-of-living crisis and the desire to slash spending has proven lucrative for Farmers Pick, which is now turning over eight figures in annual revenue.

“Ugly veggies apparently, who knew?” Ball says.

“The more we grow and scale, the more customers are engaged in how we’re reshaping the food system and the better outcomes for customers and farmers.

“Everyone has been forced to become more savvy in their weekly shop. There’s discontent with how supermarkets are operating, farmers markets are sometimes expensive, greengrocers are a dying breed and more people are willing to buy online.

“Customers are changing their behaviour to find something better.”

Keen to try out Farmers Pick? Our special discount code is TASTE which is valid for 15% off your first box.