Have you noticed how the world seems obsessed with "perfect" these days? Perfect skin, perfect hair, perfect figure, the perfect selfie...
And with food it's shiny waxed apples, red red tomatoes with not a blemish, perfectly straight carrots, and perfectly rounded heads of broccoli. It all looks very glamorous, but not always very real, and these expectations lead to an unimaginable amount of waste.
Thankfully, our customers aren't fooled by this beauty contest - and honestly, we love them for it.
Over the past couple of weeks, our poor broccoli has been doing it tough in the heat. Its normal physiological processes go awry at high temps, and leaves grow up among the florets that make up the head as the plant turns its energy towards flowering and reproduction. It has been unarguably ugly - the kind of broccoli that would never make the cover of a supermarket catalogue.
But our customers haven't batted an eyelid. They've kept buying it, cooking with it, and valuing what truly matters: freshness, nutritional punch, flavour, and supporting local farmers.
And because we've had a surplus of these homely-but-hearty heads, we've been busy in the kitchen turning them into something delicious - a Cheesy Broccoli Pie filling. It's rich, comforting, and packed with all that homegrown organics goodness, plus it helps us make ends meet by keeping our creativity high and our waste low.
So here's to the people who know good food isn't always photogenic - but that it is always worth celebrating.