If there is one thing I’ve learned over the past year from picking up free chicken scraps at our local grocery store, it’s that you never know what, or how much produce you are going to go home with on any given week.
We picked up 3 boxes of produce that was headed for the dumpster and were thrilled with what we found. Hiding under the heads of organic lettuce and asparagus were quite a few treasures.
Is it me, or does Lucy look like a stuffed dog right here? The dog will eat anything I tell you. Anything. She even ate fennel for Pete’s sake! Lucy is totally nuts.
At the bottom of one of the boxes was a bunch of corn. As I was pulling back the husks to see if any of them were keepers, I started to wonder where the corn came from. What state/country has corn in season right now? Does anyone know?
Clearly, no one was going to buy this mutant ear of corn.
Holy crack. Look at all the goodness. Chard, asparagus, corn, broccoli, melon, pineapple, carrots, lettuce, peppers, radishes, cabbage and beets. I’m not sure what the retail value on all this is, but since it was going to be thrown out, I’m glad we were able to save it.
And the chickens were happy with their boxes of scraps this week too.
Thank you Mr. Produce Guy!
What do YOU think about all this food waste? If your local market gave away their scraps would you take them?
~Mavis
Would you like to see what else we have brought home over the past year?
Head on over HERE to read all the past stories and to see all the pictures.
If you have just stumbled upon this series and are wondering how I got all this food for free, you’ll want to read this story first.
Anna says
NONE of our stores, here, give out their old produce. It is the same story at each place…. “We aren’t allowed to give it out because someone or their critter might get sick, then sue us.” Sheesh! One told me that they send some of theirs to a dog food making facility. And several of them said that they send some of theirs to a ‘soup kitchen’. But YES, if I could get it, I would in a heartbeat! It would be a true Godsend!
Kari A. says
Everytime you post what Mr. Produce Guy gives you, I am absolutely amazed and (I will admit) a little jealous. Most of the fruit and veggies that you get look better than the stuff I have to pay full price for! Cant wait until the veggies in my container gardens are ready to harvest!
Jesse says
There is no law against giving away food. Grocery stores hide behind that but the actually law is a “good samaritan” rule. If the grocery store gives it away with reasonable expectation it is safe then the recipient cannot hold them liable for damage. It is a national law designed to prevent food waste.
I read this in a book about recovering food but I cannot remember the name!
Cathy says
Well, and it’s a vegetable for goodness sake! It’s not giving away old or “ify” meat that could be harboring ecoli or something. (If the vegetable is harboring ecoli like bagged spinach a few years ago, it got there during the initial processing, not as it got old). No one is going to get sick from eating a bruised pear. If a fruit or vegetable is going bad, it will taste bad, or be slimy or moldy, so don’t eat it!! I would definitely take produce scraps if my local stores would give them away. I am picky when I buy my produce. I buy the best looking things I can find so I feel more confident that it will last as long as possible so I don’t waste my money on something that is rotten the next day. If it were free or even a substantial reduction, I would gladly buy more bruised produce.
Krista says
I bought corn on the cob last week that was grown in California. So there’s one place it’s in season at right now.
Katiegirl says
Jesse is right, there’s a law protecting stores from being sued from donated food. Too bad most of them still won’t give the stuff away. I’d take stuff in a heart beat, but I can’t find stores willing to donate it!
Karen @ Making Shift says
Yes, I’d take leftover produce in a heartbeat! In fact, I’ve been thinking about which market to approach first. My plan is to just say it’s for my chickens (which is true- some will go to the chickens) and save the good stuff for my people. I’m sure some will make it to my compost pile, too, which is also great!
Julie Ann says
Out of the four store within a 200-mile radius from my home, only ONE store has “picked produce” for the public – and they charge $5 a bag. Granted, the bag usually weighs 50 lbs 🙂 I get one every other week (even though they are available for purchase twice a day). The bags are often full of packaging plastic/onion bags, the beat-up outer leaves of lettuce, and very rotten produce. I am usually able to make five grocery bags of veggies for the chickens/goats/turtles… and am able to salvage quite a bit for us to use, too! The compost gets what I cannot feed something/someone.
One week, I got seven bundles of spinach and 12 bundles of red/green leaf lettuce, not counting all the usual lettuce-y scraps. We ate big salads ALL week and used nearly all of it :3
Adriana Bean says
Hellooooo Mavis!!
I found u thru the “Prudent Homemaker”.
I was so inspired by ur produce “scraps” that I took a chance and asked my local grocer and I was able to get 1 box the first wk filled w 12 heads of romaine…w ties attached! What a thrill!!
Went back last wk and was only able to salvage a baggies worth but took leftovers to a nearby farm in hopes to start bartering for eggs like u!!
Cathy says
I used to buy reduced price seconds to cook up for my dog food. Then the shop said they couldn’t do it any more in case they got sued. However, you do sometimes find food with a reduced price on it. One national supermarket, for a while, got rid of excess leftovers by putting them out and you filled a bag for $2 but you had to be there at the right time. You could get quite a variety of fruit and vegies this way.
Rachael says
Yeah, I’ve asked and noone gives old produce away around here. :::sigh:::
Our first crop of corn is just coming into season. We had some last night and it was oh, so very sweet and yummy. We love that about central Texas, two corn crops a year when the corn is on for 5 to 8 ears for a $1.
IC says
I get nice produce trim from our local organic store. I wouldn’t get conventionally raised from other stores, though. Wouldn’t even want to compost it since the chems stay (and then concentrate) in the soil.
Mary says
Corn is also in season here in Florida as well. Hopefully not mutant corn like the one you have though! 😉
Lisa says
I have been lucky and a small locally owned grocery store gives my family the old produce they are going to throw out. We could get two boxes, three times a week – but we usually just go once or twice a week because we don’t want to take more than we can use and there are others who come and get it also. It has really been a blessing and I haven’t had to buy veggies for our pets. Today I was able to salvage these items: 1 small container of cherry tomatoes, 3 big tomatoes (I made into salsa), 2 heads of romaine lettuce, 3 bags of salad, 1 bag of spinach (going to make greek pizza tonight), 2 bags of of grapes (froze for snacks/smoothies), 1 zucchini (made coconut zucchini vegan bread), 1 cucumber (sliced up and ate in a salad for lunch), 1 yellow pepper, 1 artichoke, 4 carrots, 4 mango’s, 1 papaya, 1 pear, 1 avacado and 12 apples. I sliced up the apples and dried half of them and the rest of them I made an apple cake with. I used Mavis’ Vanilla Pear Coffee Cake recipe, but used apples instead and put extra apples in it, plus used flaxseed in place of the egg, rice milk in place of milk and vegan butter in place of regular butter. It is the most moist yummy cake I have ever tasted!!!
Emily says
I’m wondering what you think of the movie A Place at the Table? http://www.magpictures.com/aplaceatthetable/?
Huey says
That mutant ear of corn is giving me bad dreams!!!!!