photo by Gillian Ferguson

These days we’re hearing more about food waste and how to cut down on the 40% that’s thrown away from farm to table.  Yes, 40%.  In the USA. Shocking isn’t it?  Some of it doesn’t make it from farm to supermarket because it doesn’t fit the particular standards set by each supermarket for each item.  For fruit often the size is off, too big or more often too small.  Sometimes there are blemishes.  Oh no!  Not blemishes!  Fruit isn’t our complexions fellow eaters.  Often blemishes happen because of too much sun directly on the skin of the fruit, or from an insect who sensing super sweetness collides into the fruit. Or sometimes that just how they turn out when you’re breeding for extraordinary flavor.   As is the case for the Anya Candycot, a fruit that really could be the poster child for the food version of the adage “you can’t judge a book by it’s cover”.

The Anya is tiny, smaller than a golf ball.  The color is neither the peachy blush of a Blenheim apricot nor the sunny yellow of a plum.  It’s sort of greenish yellow with brownish spots and speckles.  Some of the ones I’ve had from Andy’s Orchard are left to dry a bit on the tree.  The skin gets kind of leathery which turns out to be a good thing because the inside is so jammy sweet and juicy that the skin becomes a sweet edible bag for the insane treat within.

So please don’t judge when it comes to fruit.  You might be passing up a hidden gem.