Making the Most of Bad Fruit

A recent Market to Mouth guest, Cindy Lawrence (pic to left), read my last post on waste and responded with the following:

"What if you buy bad fruit and don't know it till you get home? The dilemma I have is do I drive back to the store or just put it in the fridge. If I put it in the fridge it inevitably goes really bad and then I throw it out, at which point I feel guilty for having thrown it out!"

When I've purchased fruit that looks perfectly fine, but once home have bitten into the apple, pear, peach etc. only to discover that its floury or even brown at the core, I'm often furious.

My intention to take the fruit back with the receipt is often set aside due to the time involved and so I do end up tossing it the trash.

However, I'm aware I have options:

1. Cut the bad fruit into pieces, discard any really bad bits, and poach the remainder until tender (about 10 mins). Poached fruit is delicious with oatmeal & yogurt for breakfast or as a snack, or served with roasted meats like chicken, turkey, ham, pork.
2. Poached or stewed fruit can be made into pies, strudel, fruit butters, muffins
   
3. If you've purchased a pound of bad fruit, consider making chutney. Apples, pears, peaches, nectarines etc, make fabulous fruit chutney.
   
4. Compost bad fruit. Very simple!
5. If none of the above dissipate the annoyance at having purchased bad fruit, hot foot it back to the store with your receipt. On the occasions I've made the effort, there's never been an issue, and I've been able to replace what I've purchased, and sometimes I've received a credit for the bad fruit.