Hepworth Farms, one of Baldor's two partners, started offering imperfect zucchini, peppers, and cucumbers this summer. It recently added butternut squash, acorn squash, and spaghetti squash to the list.
McQuillan said Baldor wants to "recalibrate" what kinds of produce are considered usable so that more of it can go toward restaurants and other buyers.
Some of these items may look different than produce sold in stores — they may be bigger, smaller, or misshapen. But they are still nutritious and tasty, he said, adding it would be "a shame" for them to be unused.
"In the farmers' eyes, in their co-packing facilities, they decided for whatever reason that these didn't meet the standard," he said. "Why is there even a standard on an acorn squash? Why is there a standard on butternut squash? Particularly if you go to peel it and chunk it and put it in a soup, what makes it different?"