This past week I hit the jackpot in the reclaimed food department. Melons, lettuce, strawberries, corn and grapes. This whole idea of asking your local grocer for their chicken scraps isn’t a bad gig. Some weeks we make out like bandits, and some weeks the chickens get all the loot. What we obtain, and what we are actually able to reclaim varies, and I think it’s what keeps me going back for more.
Life’s like a box of scraps… You never know what you’re gonna get. ~Mavis Gump
Now if this were the depression era, I’d probably just cut away the bad parts, but I have chickens, and they sure do love corn. So when they see The Girl and I with a big box of golden goodness, they make a run for the gate and stand there silently, waiting for it to drop on the ground. And then it’s a free for all.
I wonder what people in other countries would think of our produce standards here in the US. 3 “bad” leaves of lettuce ruin the whole bag? Fine by me. I can pick out 3 pieces of lettuce in a bag that’s not set to expire for another 5 days. No problem.
Hardly a week goes by we don’t get free strawberries We have so many in the freezer right now it’s ridiculous. I wonder if the amount of free berries will slow down in the winter months or stay the same.
Free grapes? Heck ya I’ll take them. I don’t mine sorting.
I had to peel back 1 leaf to get it to look like this. How much does a head of lettuce cost these days anyway?
I’m thinking we must have salvaged at least $50 worth of produce. How crazy is that?
- 6 watermelon quarters
- 2 bags of salad mix
- 3 heads of lettuce
- 4+ pounds of grapes
- 4 ears of corn
- 20+ pounds of strawberries
Go Forth and Salvage!
~ Mavis
Would you like to see what else we have brought home over the past 5 months?
Head on over HERE to read all the past stories and to see all the pictures.
Forrest Gump {Two-Disc Special Collector’s Edition} $9.47 ~ Amazon.com
*Amazon prices can change at anytime
Practical Parsimony says
This is why I don’t mind eating food gotten on a dumpster dive! Besides, I have a bag of the Italinn Blend in the refrigerator that I paid for that should have been eaten. It has more than two leaves to discard. Good haul.
Mary Ann says
It just boggles the mind what our society is willing to throw away!
Lucky family and lucky chickens! SO jealous! 🙂
Brenda says
Most stores I know of will no longer do this – 🙁 for chicken scraps or pig scraps…we used to get this for our pigs back home, but every store I have talked to says it’s a “liability ” issue. Do you have small local store that you have more success with? or a major Chain?
Mavis says
I know both chain and mom and pop store that do this. It just depends on each individual store. 🙂
Saralie says
Wow! Envious of all those strawberries!
Side question, have you ever made ketchup?
Ashley says
I wish the produce that my grocery store sells was as good looking as the stuff your’s considers scrap, lol!
Megan says
Love your pictures of the “bad” produce! I’ve been curious about the gross-factor….just what do you have to sort through to get some good stuff.
Penelope says
Wednesday seems to be my day I can go. Howard (my dear grocer dude) was so encouraging with his, “Oh, you’re here for our garbage.” drawl. It was the very young man that actually brought the barrel to the back so I could pull from it.
Not much to go through today, ended up with tomatoes, lettuce, some corn, some plums, nectarines, a bit of garlic, 1 green bean, some lemons and a lime. As they brought back the barrel, the nice young boy pulled the 10 lb bag of potatoes off the top and threw it into the barrel with nasty watermelon. *sigh* didn’t feel like I wanted to pull that one out.
And out of concern for my soil, I decide to give everything a nice little bath in very diluted chlorine today.
Mavis says
I love that you took one green bean. Made me smile.
Jessica says
I just got my “chicken scraps” today and ended up with 23 bags of Dole salads. The produce manager splits the stuff between 4 of us that pick it up, so they had a lot of salad past its’ sell by date (which was just yesterday!)!!! Yesterday it was on the shelf “on sale” for $2.99/bag, today it’s supposedly no good for anything but chicken feed. My chickies got a bag of spinach and arugala, then I gave some to 3 neighbors, my mom, my mom’s friend, and my grandma and still have plenty left.
Mavis says
Wowza! That is a lot of lettuce. Looks like you’ll be eating salad for a week!
Lissa says
I had family visiting this week and Exciting Events going on all day every day so I skipped my reclaimed produce. Next week I have to miss too because I’m out of town for a conference. 🙁 However, am picking a ton of free blackberries today, got some awesome produce deals at Safeway this week (HAD to do a quick stop to pick up free Kraft items and produce!), and I got a beautiful food strainer/sauce maker (victorio-like) for just $7 at Goodwill along with a dozen+ 1/2 pint jelly jars for $0.20 each!
Krista says
lettuce here is about $2 a head and the yellow bowl of strawberries u have, where i live would be over 8$ just for that amount in the bowl, bagged lettuce would be about 6 here for both. Ive tried asking for chicken scraps but most places here wont give anything to you short of a dirty look, next spring hopefully i will be able to grow laot more that we did this year which was mostly herbs tomatoes and bell peppers
Brandi says
I live in the tacoma area, and we just got chicks! Any ideas of stores around here that do this? Who do you ask, the manager?