Imperfect fruits and vegetables

Cinzia Cuneo 25 agosto, 2012 mangiare locale, frutta, verdure

Harvest season is in full swing. This is the ideal time to make the most of local fruits and vegetables, not only for immediate consumption, but also for stocking up on them.

It is also the best time to go pay a visit to producers, or do the rounds of market places. You’ll see that market garden production does not yield only uniform and perfectly shaped products that can be usually found in the supermarket. In fact a substantial part of agricultural produce, despite being perfectly edible, is unfortunately wasted purely because of its appearance: Part of this produce is used for manufacturing processed products, but the rest is simply thrown away.

It is only in a producer’s organic basket at the public market, or in your own vegetable garden, if you’re lucky enough to own one, that you can enjoy these natural fruits and vegetables that are less ‘elegant’ but often tastier than their ‘perfect’ counterparts.

Three cheers for imperfections… let’s celebrate the difference!

Try some of our recipes featuring local vegetables:

• Baked Ratatouille

• Classic Ratatouille

• Grilled Vegetable Kebabs

• Lettuce, Cucumber and Tomato Salad

• Mediterranean Beef Stir-Fry

Baked Ratatouille

Originally published in the Journal de Montréal on August 25, 2012.

Autori

Cinzia Cuneo

Italiana di nascita e canadese d'adozione, Cinzia ha deciso di coniugare le sue competenze professionali e la sua passione per la buona tavola sviluppando un servizio per aiutare i numerosi «aventi bisogno» a riprendere il controllo della loro alimentazione. Così è nata SOSCuisine. Ingegnere di formazione al Politecnico di Torino, Cinzia ha conseguito un Master's Degree in scienze applicate all'École Polytechnique de Montréal.