More fresh juicy local peaches and heirloom tomatoes than I can handle, saved from waste by rich and poor alike
I’ve eaten ten or twelve juicy ripe peaches and about that number of bowls of heirloom tomato gazpacho in the past two days.
I got them from volunteering. I brought food that a store was going to throw away. The store produce isn’t as flavorful as the fresh, local produce in season in the height of the summer from farmers markets. Other volunteers bring different things from different places. It all gets distributed to whoever shows up to receive it at Tompkins Square Park in the East Village, generally poor people. I’m not sure how many are homeless, live in shelters with or without kitchens, or just come for free food.
Someone else brought the farmers market stuff. Two large plastic bags contained the unsold, bruised peaches and heirloom tomatoes. They were probably bruised before being put in the bag, but transporting them bruised them more so the bags had a bunch of liquid in them. Still, the peaches and tomatoes were clearly still edible, at least to me and to one other guy.
EDIT: After writing the post, I took a picture of one of the heirloom tomatoes. You can see the bruises. I can attest it tasted delicious and I suffered no harm from eating it. Many were more bruised, even showing some mold, which I easily removed with under three seconds of effort per tomato, I’d estimate. Again, only deliciousness, no illness.
Nobody else wants this produce. Other volunteers have been known to have thrown such bags of produce away. I’m not sure how they could throw away perfectly good food, but I have two main theories. One is that the bruises make the produce beneath the dignity of people unable to afford food. The other is that they simply don’t know what to do with produce.
I think many people simply have no idea what to do with raw ingredients.
The result: the other guy who see no problem with fruit being bruised and dripping wet with their expressed juices eat them there, trying to persuade others to eat them too, and take as many home as we can. Since I don’t have a freezer, I bring as much as I expect won’t go bad before I eat them. Yesterday that criterion led me to bring maybe twenty pounds of tomatoes and peaches.
I just can’t believe people pass on heirloom tomatoes and peaches at the height of their season. I think that besides not knowing what to do with fresh produce, they’ve probably smothered their taste buds’ ability to sense the nuance and subtlety.
I’ve eaten two or three bowls of heirloom tomato gazpacho for four meals in a row. Each bowl could go for $20 at a typical restaurant, though these taste better. For one thing I don’t add oil, but the main reason is that it’s heirloom tomatoes. Also, many of the other ingredients are fresh, local, and some free, certainly the garlic and onions, though I forget what I put in. Most of the rest came from the CSA or coop.
I’m eating two or more peaches per meal too, my hands dripping with peach juice despite my attempts to taste every atom of peach and flavor. Eating them feels almost religious.
What I can’t get over: that people don’t take free fresh local produce that a few hours before was being sold at a farmers market. Even those without kitchens can eat them by hand. I also can’t get over that they look in the bag, see tons of fresh, local produce and the height of the season and decline.
It reminds me of a time a few years ago when I visited the apartment of a friend of a friend. It was a potluck event so everyone was supposed something. Everyone else brought packaged stuff they put no effort into preparing. My friend who brought me and I brought ingredients to cook there. They gave me a knife and chopping board (really a plastic sheet). Neither had ever been used before.
This picture isn’t the fruit I ate, just a picture of bruised fruit from the net, but the peaches I’m eating are far more bruised than in the picture. I’ll try to take a picture tomorrow.
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