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when it starts growing mold it goes from my "use immediately" list to my "toss it" list.

thank you :)
perfect timing!

I had a friend who grew up during Communism in Hungary. She was always shocked by the food that I thought ought to be thrown away. She would cut away the bad part and use the rest. I learned a lot from her.

Later I read the diaries of Victor Klemperer who was a Jew who managed to miraculously survive WWII in Dresden. What he and his wife ate puts an entirely different picture to one's attitude to food. I'm not being holier than thou--I LOVE food and so did they, but you realize that what we think is acceptable and what is in fact acceptable are two entirely different things.

One of my goals for this year is not to throw away food, to try to find a way to use it. Out of respect for Victor Klemperer and for the food and for the people who took the trouble to raise it and make it available. It really is a miracle, the abundance with which we live.

yea, i dont do anything with moldy fruit... however when i have too many that are at their peak ripeness and i know i wont get to them all, i chop them up, freeze, blend and freeze again for homemade sorbet. ive done this with a lot of peaches this year.

A fruit crisp is easier than a cobbler and has more fiber, etc. I just throw together a crisp topping with some oatmeal, whatever chopped nuts I've got around the kitchen, a little bit of sugar, a bit of whole wheat flour and a couple tablespoons of melted butter or even oil would probably work. No, I don't measure things, just throw in what looks right and it always comes out pretty good.

But we had a whole bag of peaches from the farmer's market that got hideously bruised on the way home some how. They made a great crisp. In years past, I would have been tempted to just chuck the whole bag because it looked so hopelessly messy, but food costs are so high these days. It was ten dollars worth of peaches and only six of them survived the trip home in good enough condition for regular eating. But I had breakfast three days in a row of peach crisp.

My favorite thing to do with "past-its-prime" fruit is to make a jam-like sauce (fruit, a touch of sugar, a touch of juice for liquid, let it simmer in a pot on the stove). I throw whatever I have into the pot and it always comes out a little different.
I stir it into yogurt for breakfasts.

I put overripe bananas in smoothies with unsweetened chocolate soy milk - delicious and healthy chocolate banana shake!

I throw the overripe fruits into the blender and use my dehydrator to make homemade fruit leather which is my kid's favorite "healthy" snack. Apples, pears, plums, peaches, and berries in any combination usually yield the best results.