B.C. woman turns 'second grade' fruit into drinking vinegar
Fight to curb food waste in B.C. continues as many companies make use of unwanted produce
There's a naturally delicious movement growing in Vancouver, and it's being driven by the city's industrious advocates for blemished fruit.
The end game is simple: justice for second grade produce that doesn't make it onto grocery store shelves.
Fruit fanatic Heidi Kuhn saw the horror firsthand when she visited a fruit farm in the Okanagan.
"There were trailer loads of cherries that were second grade.... They didn't have a stem, or they had a tiny imperfection," she told host Sheryl MacKay on CBC's North by Northwest.
"They were taking them to the dump."
Food waste has been declared a global challenge by the United Nations.
In B.C., advocates are concerned that a lot of locally-produced fruits and veggies don't make it onto grocery stores shelve because of superficial blemishes.
Kuhn is one of many people who have taken advantage of the second grade produce. She turns them into shrubs — drinking vinegars that can be mixed with soda water or used to create cocktails.
She now runs her own business called Mixers and Elixirs.
Kuhn works directly with the farmers, buying their second grade produce at a reduced cost. To date, she's created shrubs sourced from nectarines, quinces, and concord grapes.
"It was a good way to sort of reclaim a lot of the food that's out there," she said.
Nectarine overload
Kuhn says she got the idea after doing volunteer work with the Vancouver Fruit Tree Project — a non-profit that serves local produce to different community groups.
After a successful campaign, the group had a bunch of nectarines left over from one of the local donors. The project's organizers told the volunteers that they could take some of the leftovers home.
She visited the packing house to claim her stake, and was taken aback by how much was left.
"The guy brings out a pallet of fruit — it was at least 3.5 to four feet tall," Kuhn said.
They stuffed as much as they could into her car. With all the extra fruit, the light bulb went off.
"We decided to try making shrubs," she said.
Now Kuhn is testing out new flavours with different foods, including a grapefruit and hop shrub that uses fruit leftover from kombucha fermenters.
She says the whole experience has encouraged her to get more creative with the production process.
"You're an idea hamster after a while — just running on the wheel and spinning them out."
With files from CBC's North by Northwest
To listen to the full interview, click on the audio labelled: B.C. woman turns 'second grade' fruit into drinking vinegar