What you see: Bumps on your cucumber, sometimes of varying size. What it is: Stipples! Just a natural part of the cucumber. Eat or toss: Eat! So, are
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Sometimes perfectly good peppers can have bad seeds
What you see: Dark or shriveled seeds in your pepper. What it is: Seeds that didn’t properly develop. Eat or Toss: You weren’t going to eat the seeds anyway,
Breathe easy. Those little speckles are supposed to be on your apple
What you see: Tiny dots all over the surface of your apple. What it is: Lenticels! These are tiny pores that apples use to breathe. Eat or toss? Eat! Why
Tiny scratches all over your pepper?
What you see: Little lines or scars on your bell pepper. What it is: The result of a sudden, unexpected growth spurt. Eat or toss? Eat! These are just harmless
Cucumber with tidy, tiny holes
What you see: Three tiny holes around the cucumber seeds, as if they’re arranged in a perfect triangle. What it is: While a cucumber appears as a single, solid
Is that blood in my egg?
What you see: A vivid red speck, or something that looks like a drop of blood in the egg yolk. What it is: A spot of blood from the chicken’s reproductive
Why is the inside of my tomato white and hard?
What you see: A hard, white area inside a tomato What it is: Likely the result of problematic weather conditions on the farm Eat or toss? You could eat it, but
Garlic clove turning green?
What you see: Green on the exterior of garlic. What it is: Harmless chlorophyll. Eat or toss: Eat! So, why is it safe to eat garlic that's turning green?
Are baby carrots with white stuff OK to eat?
What you see: A whitish film on baby carrots. What it is: The carrot is drying out or the carrot was physically damaged and the white stuff was its response to
What’s up with the liquid on top of yogurt?
What you see: Yellowish liquid pooling at the top of your yogurt. What it is: Whey! Eat or toss: Eat! This is a natural part of the yogurt and doesn’t indicate
You say stale bagel? I say Soufflégal!
Exhibit A: The bagel below was nearly pitched after a luncheon, but my resourceful husband rescued it and popped it in our fridge. Refrigerating it was the
Apple slices turned brown
What you see: Apple flesh that eventually turns brown after being sliced or bitten. What it is: Enzymatic browning! Eat or toss: Eat! When that tray of sliced
What’s the white stuff on grapes?
What you see: White film on grapes. What it is: “Bloom” produced by the grape as a natural protection. Eat or toss? Eat! It’s just part of the grape’s natural
A use for kale stems, other stems? Pesto!
I’d like to start a movement called “Save the Stems!” As long as they aren't the woody variety,* stems can be so wildly versatile and are an excellent way to
What are these stringy, slimy things in my vinegar?
What: Slimy strings and globs at the bottom of a jar of vinegar. What it is: They may look gross, but these little blobs of goop are what’s known as “mother of
What’s up with this freaky hole inside my baked potato?
What you see: A potato with a hollow, brown-tinged center. What it is: Hollow heart, a harmless physical defect caused by field conditions. Eat or toss? Eat! As