Oddbox

October 17, 2023

The weather is turning colder with nights down into the high 40’sF (4.5’sC) and days in the high 60’sF (15.5’sC).  Even though I have harvested the last batch of (nearly 20) jalapeño peppers (Capsicum annuum) I have allowed my six Arkansas Traveler tomato plants (Solanum lycopersicum ‘Arkansas Traveler’) to continue.  They are filled with dozens of small unripe green tomatoes.  Yesterday I decided there was not much hope for the fruit to ripen and thought I would harvest and then see what I could do with it.  Since Melissa is from the South, she had often spoken of the fried green tomatoes her family had eaten when the end of the season arrived.  We have recently purchased an air fryer to get away from the added fat that comes with fried foods.  Still, I am always looking for different types of uses for my produce.  That was when I found “10 ways you can use green tomatoes” on Oddbox.

When I checked online, I found the Oddbox story began in 2016 when the founders tasted a delicious but ever-so-slightly ugly tomato from a market in Portugal.  What struck Emilie and Deepak was they only saw identical-looking fruit and vegetables in their supermarkets.  When they began to dig, they found nearly 40% of food produced globally goes to waste because it was “too odd” or because growers have “too many”.  The Oddbox mission is to rescue those fruits and vegetables, at the same time making sure all the energy and water that went into growing it are put to good use.  The company (based in the UK) specializes in procuring odd and surplus fruits and vegetables from local producers and offers the products in home boxes to a community of food waste fighters, enabling customers to get a variety of fresh produce and contribute to a sustainable environment.  The company now works directly with growers to deliver thousands of boxes every week and is continuing to grow.

Oddbox not only delivers oddly shaped fruits and vegetables to consumers, but their website also offers recipes for using them.  There are two types of green tomatoes.  Sometimes, they are a separate variety of heirloom tomato that are still green when ripe.  Heirloom green tomatoes like Aunt Ruby’s German Green (Solanum lycopersicum ‘Aunt Ruby’s German Green’) is a beefsteak tomato that tastes like a typical red tomato.  More often, green tomatoes are just tomatoes that missed the chance to ripen (like mine) before the weather started to get colder.  These tomatoes are safe to consume either raw or in a cooked dish.  One of the recipes I found was for green tomato paste, or a variety of salsa verde.  The ingredients called for 2 pounds (900g) of green tomatoes, 4 mild chili peppers (1-1/2 of my hot jalapeños), one coarsely chopped onion, and 3 garlic cloves.  These are cooked for 10 minutes along with

1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin, 1 tablespoon olive oil, and 3 tablespoons water (I added a little more).  The mixture is brought to a boil and then simmered over medium-low heat for 10 minutes (stirring occasionally).  I added 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice and 1 tablespoon sugar and simmered for another 5 minutes.  Finally, I mixed the paste with a hand blender to get the consistency I wanted (btw: it tastes great). 

Thoughts:  The Oddbox mission is to ensure oddly shaped (but edible) food reaches the market.  Global food waste prior to reaching the consumer accounts for 2.5 billion tons each year and is responsible for 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions.  That means the environmental impact of wasting this food is about 248 times larger than plastic.  This is food that can be eaten, meaning it can also address world hunger.  I have begun to take a different attitude toward the vegetables I grow in the garden.  While they seldom look perfect, they are often tastier than what I buy at the store.  Oddbox knows that just because something looks different than we are used to does not mean it is worthless.  The same can be said about our encounters with other humans.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.