Let Us Explain
Our family has been in the produce industry since 1900. For over a century we bought fresh fruits and vegetables grown around the world and sold them in bulk to grocery stores and food service companies across Northeast Ohio.
We'd often see product
that wasn't quite "perfect."
Like this shipment of "yellow" bell peppers that came in with some peppers half yellow and half green.
While some have small
"imperfections" on the outside.
The inside is... perfect.
Fresh, healthy and delicious.
Most people want their yellow bell peppers to be only yellow. So many stores won't buy these peppers, even though they taste the same as an entirely perfect yellow one. Often times "imperfect" produce like this ends up going to waste.
Up to 30 percent of farmers' crops don’t even make it to market in the U.S. due to imperfections in size or color that consumers find displeasing to the eye. Some is never even harvested, some gets lost during trucking, and more at the supermarket and restaurants. More of the lucky produce that does make it to your home also gets wasted.
Wasting this much food has huge implications for the environment. Eighty percent of our nation's water, 40 percent of our land and 10 percent of our energy is used to grow our country's food. Yet food is the largest material in our land fills. Rotting food emits methane, a greenhouse gas 100 times more potent than carbon dioxide. All this waste also affects our pocketbooks. Americans are squandering the equivalent of $165 billion in food each year.
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And that's just the tip of the iceberg lettuce.
Our country is wasting 133 billion pounds of food per year!
Meanwhile, Many neighborhoods
Have insufficient access to affordable
fresh fruits and vegetables.
We'd much rather get all of this imperfect produce into the hands of our neighbors, than see it go to waste.
We know that you don't care if the orange peel has a scrape or that the "yellow" pepper is "yellowish green."
You get fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables your body likes at a price you love.
We also share our family recipes!
We want to help you know how to use all this fresh produce to prepare simple, healthy meals. With four generations of produce industry knowledge in our pantry, we know a lot about healthy cooking. So we're passing along what we know.
Each Friday you'll receive an email telling you what to expect in your box, along with a recipe. You'll learn easy preparation ideas and techniques for one or more of the fruits and vegetables in this week's box.
And if you want to learn more, contact us about our "From Seed to Spoon" healthy eating classes.