WHETHER YOU’RE USING overripe fruit for granitas, cocktails, or sauces; whether you are roasting, baking, or fermenting, fruit that is soft, getting mushy or wrinkly, or is anything less than “perfect” can be exciting and delicious.

That is why I find it especially tragic that more than 6 billion pounds a year of fresh produce goes unharvested in the United States. Why? Mostly due to demand for perfect specimens, but also due to large-scale mechanical harvesting, which passes over some edible produce while picking and bruising others during processing. Some fields are even left to fallow with fruit and vegetables rotting. A walk by, also known as a pre-harvest shrink, occurs when the prices that a crop can command are so low (due to oversupply or decreased demand) that they do not even cover the cost of labor and resources to harvest and get the crop to market.

Most people I meet think of fruit as something to eat out of hand or in a pie. I agree that there is almost nothing that beats picking a fruit out of an orchard and eating it right there. But there are so many other ways to enjoy fruits, many of which may taste even “fruitier” than eating it raw from a tree. And you can use the sweetness of fruit instead of sugar to give your cooking more depth. Just as vegetables can be used for sweets and desserts, fruits can be used for savory dishes with fantastic results. Fatty meats like ribs become mouthwatering with a fruity sauce. See Pork Ribs with Overripe-Pear Barbecue Sauce here.