WE WERE FEATURED IN THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

WE WERE FEATURED IN THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

Grab that sad, single banana and take it home – but don’t forget to eat it

By The Sydney Morning Herald ·  · 3 min read

Read it straight from The Sydney Morning Herald here.

We’ve all let half a loaf of bread grow mouldy, or purged our fridge of too many spoiled vegies. But you might be shocked by just how much produce we let wither and decompose.

Good Weekend editor Katrina Strickland certainly was. “If food waste was a country it would be the third biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions after the US and China,” she says, introducing the latest episode of Good Weekend Talks. “And the UN estimates that 17 per cent of global food production is wasted, totalling almost 1 billion tonnes a year.”

The amount of food Australia throws away each year would, in fact, fill the MCG 10 times over. And we outperform other countries in what we throw away. But there are innovative minds trying to solve this problem. That much was detailed in our featured story this week, “Waste not want not” by freelance food writer Dani Valent, who joined us on the podcast.

“How can we be more frugal, more economical?” Valent asks. “When we’re shopping, can we not buy as much? When we’re eating out, should we not be over-ordering?” There’s an onus on everyone. “Households are the biggest culprit in the end,” she says. “We can blame the farms. We can blame the supermarkets. We can blame the supply chain. But in the end, the buck really stops with us at home.”

Yet there are chefs and bartenders, suppliers and tech wizards all trying to make a difference in this space. One of them, Joshua Ball, the co-founder of imperfect produce distributor Farmers Pick, which works directly with growers to source unwanted (ill-shapen, over-ripe, spotted or small) fruit and vegies and sell them direct to consumers.

“About a third of the volume of food that’s wasted is just left on the farm,” Ball says. “It never gets out the farm gates – it’s left to rot in the orchard.” He and his best mate and co-founder, Josh Brooks-Duncan, came up with the idea of harnessing this unused produce after an epiphany while walking through a farmer’s market. “I noticed the carrots weren’t plasticky or dead straight – things were a little bit big, a little bit small, and it didn’t really matter. No one really puts much onus on the shape or the size: not if they’re fresh.”

That’s his best advice for conscience cooks, in fact, to buy that weird piece of produce, the one that looks imperfect. “The single banana is the most wasted piece of fruit on the shelf at the store, because it’s not seen as bountiful, and it’s left sort of alone. It’s this sad little single banana. So grab that single banana and take it home.”

For the full feature story, see Saturday’s Good Weekend, or visit The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.

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HASSELBACK PUMPKIN

HASSELBACK PUMPKIN

HASSELBACK PUMPKINBy Director - Josh Ball · Last updated Friday, 24th May 2024 · 3 min readCheck out all of our posts!<< Back to blog

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WE ARE EXCITED TO BE FEATURED IN THE GUARDIAN

WE ARE EXCITED TO BE FEATURED IN THE GUARDIAN

Easy wins: imperfect produce – the perfect solution to food waste

By  · 

Read it straight from The Guardian here.

Save money, reduce waste and eat more plants – a subscription for fine-but-odd fruit and veg kicks a lot of goals.

While 5 million Australians go hungry each year, an estimated 7.3m tonnes of food is wasted. In Australia, up to 25% of all vegetables produced never leave the farm, often because they are too oddly shaped for the grocery store.

All the while, these reject fruits and vegetables – also known as “imperfect produce” – remain perfectly good to eat.

Though the numbers sound overwhelming, a solution may emerge from the world of small-scale startup subscriptions.

Subscription shopping exists not just for the makeup-lovers and book-fanatics. Buying a subscription box of imperfect groceries may just be the most convenient way to simultaneously offload your weekly shop for fresh produce and reduce waste.

Farmer’s Pick, a Melbourne-based service, has found a home for more than 100 tonnes of fresh, oddly bent and sometimes blemished produce. Straight from local farms, the produce varies week-to-week, and subscription options cater to single and family households, with boxes starting at $35. The service also partners with Alex Makes Meals, donating up to seven meals to Victorians facing food insecurity for every box sold.

Give the strangely-bent carrot or bumpy potato a try and you’ll support local farmers, reduce your contribution to a growing volume of wasted food each year, and you may just find you consume more fresh produce than ever.

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HASSELBACK PUMPKIN

HASSELBACK PUMPKIN

HASSELBACK PUMPKINBy Director - Josh Ball · Last updated Friday, 24th May 2024 · 3 min readCheck out all of our posts!<< Back to blog

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POMEGRANATE AND HALLOUMI

POMEGRANATE AND HALLOUMI

POMEGRANATE AND HALLOUMIBy Director - Josh Ball · Last updated Friday, 12 April 2024 · 3 min readCheck out all of our posts!<< Back to blog

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WE WERE FEATURED ON THE CHANNEL 7 NEWS

WE WERE FEATURED ON THE CHANNEL 7 NEWS

Melbourne households now have a new way to slash the weekly grocery budget. A local start-up company is home delivering farm fresh produce at drastically discounted prices, all because supermarkets think it’s ugly.

By 7News · 

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HASSELBACK PUMPKIN

HASSELBACK PUMPKIN

HASSELBACK PUMPKINBy Director - Josh Ball · Last updated Friday, 24th May 2024 · 3 min readCheck out all of our posts!<< Back to blog

read more