It’s a good thing our backyard pet chickens will eat just about anything, because this week there was a total hodge podge of discarded fruits and vegetables from Mr. Produce Guy.
Where else in the world are you going to find totally edible papaya, avocados, grapes, lettuce, heirloom tomatoes and apples tossed to the curb {so to speak} at the end of October?
The typical grocery store in America, that’s where.
The Girl and I picked through this entire container of Earthbound Farms Organic lettuce mix and couldn’t find 1 single leaf that was not acceptable to eat. So why was it thrown out? The expiration date of course. Now we all know that expiration dates are only a guideline, but when it comes to grocery stores, the clock is always ticking, and they cannot {or won’t} sell food beyond the sell by date.
When I was a kid, they didn’t even have sell by dates. You actually had to look at the food to see if it was still good. Now days we trust the stamp on the package. Hmmm.
Regular vs Organic Bananas? Apparently monkeys from neither group will buy spotted bananas. Which is sad, because real monkeys know the fruit is better when it has spots.
I’m guessing these apples were to small and therefore nobody wanted to buy them. So they got trashed. How sad is that?
Even inspector Lucy the Puggle Dog knows good food when she sees it.
Here’s what I ended up keep from this weeks free produce boxes. Everything else was either composted or fed to the chickens. Is this crazy or what?
Peace Out Girl Scouts, I’m off to go make some homemade applesauce.
~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.
Sheila M. says
I’ve followed your posts about your weekly ‘boxes of chicken scraps”. It seems like you started out appreciating the free food that was still edible and the chance to give the scraps to your chickens and have transitioned to calling it Food Waste in America. Although you still appreciate the food (or you probably wouldn’t continue to pick it up every week) the posts have become a chance to criticize “the typical grocery store in America”. You pose a question like ‘Why don’t people buy spotted bananas?’ People do buy spotted bananas…and they taste fine. But, some people like them slightly green, some people can only make it to the store once a week and a spotted banana might be spoiled five days later when they hoped to consume it. When shoppers go to the grocery store and there is an apple without blemish and one with a large bruise for the same price, which do you think they’ll choose? American consumers are picky because they can be. When you visit a nursery, do you pick the healthy tomato plant or the sickly looking one? If the nursery store owner throws the sickly one onto the compost heap, he’s making a business decision….so are grocery stores. Many stores offer over ripe bananas for a discount, as well as providing a discount on dented canned food or a product with a torn box. There may be insurance liability issues for selling products past the ‘sell by date’. If Mr. Produce Guy gives you the produce for your chickens, he’s still allowing the produce to be used without the risk of a lawsuit. I don’t disagree that there is waste in America….and lots of it. However, maybe the litigious nature of American society plays the bigger role behind the unfortunate disposal of edible produce.
I’m glad you are willing to sort through those boxes every week and make the most of what you’ve been given. Gleaning organizations also do a great job of preventing edible foods from being thrown in the garbage.
I’m just suggesting that focusing on how you’ll be using the produce each week makes for a more interesting read than the focus on blaming grocery stores produce guidelines for ‘Food Waste in America.’
John Mayer says
The waste of perfectly good food in the US, when so many around the world are hungry or starving is shameful. I hardly think we need condemn Mavis for pointing this out while still taking advantage of it and reducing the nation’s waste infinitesimally. Of course, we could reduce waste by far more by avoiding consuming animals at all, thus eliminating the vast amount of food grown to feed them.
Kristina says
I can’t feed avocados to my pet parrot, because they are toxic to him. Can chickens safely eat avocados? I’ve never fed them to mine, because I assumed they were similarly toxic to other avians.
Susan says
My friend is a Vet, and she told me never to feed Avocado to my chickens. TOXIC to birds!!!
Patty says
I love it when the “spotted bananas” are on discount because they want to get rid of them fast 🙂 They are cheap and are at the right stage for my liking! Plus, if I find a whole bunch of them for cheap, I just throw them in the freezer for banana bread later on!
Janet says
I am always envious of the produce you get each week. I always think how that would benefit my family of four plus animals and how it would be such a great help. Produce can be such a big part of a grocery cost. There are ways to use produce that is getting past its prime (smoothies, soup, etc.). Sometimes you just forget it’s in the refrigerator. I try not to waste anything, so I’m always looking for ways to get those fruits and vegetables into our meals and not wasted.
Lauren says
I buy small apples that way Miss 3 has a better chance of eating it all before she gets distracted.
Elizabeth says
I started buying the small apples after being handed one too many half eaten apples. They’re a much better house for the little ones in the house-also they’re a more appropriate serving size for them 🙂
Peggy Stenglein says
Yes, it is a waste, and no, there’s nothing wrong with being disgusted with the amount of food we throw away as a society. We are fixated on ‘the perfect’ and ‘the expiration date’, but low on common sense overall. There’s no reason to waste so much…we have to get in the mindset of not worrying about the perfect vision of the perfect produce, some of it is shaped funny or over ripe…most cases, there is a way to use it, we just have to think a bit. 🙂
Peggy Stenglein says
Sorry, I had more to write before, but my timer was going off on my stove for me to take the pepper-onion relish I was making out of it’s boiling water bath!! But that gets to the point of food waste. I had an incredible crop of sweet and hot peppers this year, and with a warm fall, I was picking peppers up until last week! I gave away boatloads to neighbors, anyone who would take them. I grew up gardening with my Mom and not wasting anything, but peppers are hard to keep, so I started looking into my canning cookbooks, and came up with pepper-onion relish, and tomorrow I’ll be making some sweet and sour pepper relish! Whether it’s from the grocery store, or your own garden, there’s no need to waste. 🙂
Tammy says
I love the spotted reduced bananas. I slice them and dehydrate them. My Puggle Sasha loves them for treats as well as sliced apples. It is vet approved for her dieting needs and I don’t buy expensive dog treats!