 Bugs DO reside here…they love good products and we don’t mind eating holy greens sometimes. There are certain times during the year and for certain crops (brassica family) that are worse for having holes on the produce from bugs enjoying some green nourishment that comes in a leafy form :). As Jason and I tell folks – we guarantee bugs…and the good part is that you cant taste bug bites. We will not compost produce just because it has holes.
We WOULD compost a row of crops if it would get completely decimated by insects. But if there are some random holes here and there in some products, it’s still good. We would toss a crop in compost before ever spraying with harsh petrochemicals.
Here in the United States, we’ve become trained consumers to complain if there are any imperfections. All the tiny imperfections on our food are actually like “little PERFECTIONS” in my mind.
If you were to look back at apples about 100 years ago in the 1920s, there were so many holes and blemishes…and that was a perfect apple back then. Today…most apples we see in grocery stores are completely uniform without cracks, holes, and blemishes. Also, TODAY, if the produce is not completely uniform and has holes and cracks then it’s scoffed at or grosses people out. The fact is that TODAY’s apples have been modified and coated with wax to appear perfect.
I’m just trying to paint a picture of what PERFECT is in small-scale organic farming… it’s not what a big chain store has painted for us.