Family photo 2013

Family photo 2013

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

It's Not Dumpster Diving

But it's close....

**Alert: To All Food Snobs** If you insist that every singe piece of your blemish free produce be merchandised in such a way as to convey that it might not be real food whatsoever but could in fact be made of plastic to be placed in a wooden bowl whereby it will sit and decorate your pristine table, you may not want to read. If you insist on continuing to meander beyond this point, please, I beg of you, proceed with caution. And for heaven's sake, don't say I didn't warn you.

To the rest of us,

The other evening I was perusing facebook (while I should have been making dinner, of course) when lo and behold, like magic just for me, up on my side ticker thingy pops a comment (or a 'like' I can't remember which) by a new friend whose blog I've been reading and admiring for ages. I clicked on the link she comment/liked because the name was so super catchy. One Hundred Dollars a Month. $100/month happens to be a blog written by a woman who feeds her family (mom, dad, 2 school aged kids) on guess how much? Yup! You got it. (Genius!) $100/month. Impossible! I told myself.

Until I learned her secret. (One of many!)

She goes to her local supermarket and requests produce they are going to throw away "for her chickens." Then, she separates it out, what is still good and consumable for humans, and what actually goes to her guess what? Yup! You got it. (Genius!) Chickens. Brilliant, I said to myself. This woman is utterly brilliant! Then, myself and I continued on in our conversation, "I have chickens too! Maybe I could try that. Why yes, I could!" And, so I did.

I called up my local store, spoke in my sweetest voice telling the produce manager all about our family's effort to conserve, reduce, reuse, recycle, and repurpose, and that we have a BOATLOAD of children chickens who would be so very pleased to devour what would otherwise go to waste to feed only a giant dumpster. (I think they might be funny about it if you tell them you would like to devour the food yourselves. Aren't there FDA (the most corrupt organization on earth) regulations that prohibit retailers from giving their aging food away lest some less fortunate soul consumes it, falls ill, and sues only to become a multi-millionaire? I don't know. Something like that....)

He said "SURE! No problem. But I will have to charge you a little bit." Okey dokey artichokey. I'll be right over.

He gave me 3 big boxes, for $2 a piece, containing all this. It was a bit to sort through it all, but well worth it for the bounty that was unleashed on our non-snobby, blessed family.

The boxes I picked up:
 I don't know about you, but to me this lettuce says, "eat me."
 Corn on the cob with a top begging to be chopped off so it can live up to its full nourishing potential.
 See? All better.
 Look at all this perfectly consumable produce! Corn, strawberries, potatoes, iceberg lettuce, about a million bags of cranberries, broccoli, green leaf lettuce, asparagus, radishes, bell peppers, mini peppers, squash, carrots, garlic, scallions, parsley, oh my!
 One of 2 boxes left, for the chickens!

And, there was a big strainer full of grapes that I forgot to photograph which is now washed and awaiting Deutschlet's hands.

All for $6.

I think the produce is happy. We spared it a most unfortunate fate of going unused and tossed aside like rubbish. It's ok baby veggies. We love you very much. We'll look after you now. ♥

Anyone have a great recipe for oodles of cranberries? :)

4 comments:

Unknown said...

are you saying I have to buy chickens now? I am not sure that will go well today after JJ almost squished one at the farm......

Sandy said...

Wow, what a great idea! That produce looks awesome, but no cauliflower? :) See you tomorrow!

Lindy said...

I'm pretty sure there's a way to cook and freeze the cranberries...let me see if I can find where that was from last year (I read something somewhere).

Tara Schmitz said...

I have a really great recipe for cranberry sauce that can be made and then frozen. I can't believe you got all that for $6!!

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