BTW, I should clarify that I’m not opposed in any way to feeding the birds or other wildlife. But I also know that is do the generous quantities of food allotted to me now.

Sharon

I used to waste more food before I started growing it. Now, I know full well how much effort goes into growing good food, on my part or someone else’s. Not only do I get all the possible food value out of the produce I grow (we cut around the bad spots and eat the good parts, we eat the potatoes I cut while harvesting first, and so on), but I eat every bit of food that I take, and it is a point of honor with me and my DH to not let anything into the fridge go uneaten so long that it spoils. He was always like that, having grown up in a family that had little extra money. I have learned to be like that.

I have plenty of food for the critters too, because I have native flowers that I let go to seed, berries just for them, and plenty of grasses to make seed. So I work hard to keep them out of the small space of the veggie garden. The birds got my sunflowers, too; all I could rescue was a small part of one head. On the other hand, the hull-less pumpkins did pretty good this year. I think for me, hull-less pumpkins make a better crop for our seed-eating pleasure than sunflowers do. Part of garden wisdom is to figure out what works best given our very particular conditions. Next year I’ll expand the pumpkin patch. I’ll probably grow sunflowers just because I enjoy them, not as a crop to eat.

I’m still hoping that eventually I’ll have enough hazelnuts that the squirrels will leave me a few … but I’m not holding my breath. I’ve yet to come up with a successful squirrel defense, unless it’s growing so much that they can’t eat it all. (No, I don’t believe it either. But I’m going to keep trying to find a nut crop I can grow.)

Part of the allure of grocery store food, back when nationally distributed fresh vegetables became the norm (1950s an 1960s), was that everyone could bring home “perfect” tomatoes, pickles, lettuce, etc.

So now we have a couple-three generations used to thinking blemishes mean the product is damaged and unsafe – instead of suffering a mere inconsequential cosmetic defect.

Learning again about the difference between unsafe and blemished is an important part of realigning expectations. If you haven’t run short of money and food before the end of the month, or haven’t done so a couple months running, you may not have had reason to consider that there are other realities besides the grocery store veggie aisle.

It may not help when Miracle Gro commercials teach everyone that a *real* gardener uses Miracle Gro commercial fertilizer, and *real* gardeners always get big and beautiful garden results. Just like farming, barring insects, vagaries of weather, poor luck at picking the right part of the season to plant and harvest – why, you always get a bumper crop! Kind of like Lake Woebegone, where all the kids are above average, a *real* gardener always gets great produce.

There are lots of reinforcements for thinking only the best will do, and that store ‘X’ has the best. Or only this garden fertilizer/pest control/garden tool will result in useful produce. (The important part of garden tools, is to use what you have, use it well, and use it often! Usually.)

As you say, part of the skill and craftsmanship of gardening is judging the quality of your produce, and estimating the preservation process or use that is most appropriate for that produce in that condition, at that time.

But I still hate it when I bite into an apple, and find half the worm flopping about. Or crack a pecan to find a white grub wallowing around.

Every year, the amount I’m willing to work to save increases and the amount I’m willing to pitch decreases.