Eating food that was destined for the trash, is sort of like a good ole’ country western song. If Brad Paisley only knew about all the food waste in Americana, I’m pretty sure he’d be singing the blues in the back of an old rusty pick up truck alongside his 3 legged dog, while strumming cords on his acoustic guitar.
This what the produce section of my local grocery store throws away in typical an 8 hour period of time. When we go to the grocery store, we expect to see perfect fruits and vegetables. The bottom line is, the food you see in the four boxes above, is not perfect. A kernel of corn may be dry, a cantaloupe that was cut opened and put on display for a few hours is no longer attractive enough to sell, a few of the grapes in the bag may have gone bad and so on and so on.
I wonder what people who grew up during the Great Depression would have thought about stores throwing out perfectly edible food. Would they have turned a blind eye to it? Would they have made the journey to the store to pick up the produce and then feed it to their animals? Would they have picked through the 20% {or so} of truly inedible stuff and eat the rest?
I’m not here to bash the grocery stores. Not one bit. I get it. I understand there are standards. And if given the choice, if I was shopping at a grocery store, I would pick a perfect piece of fruit over one that was bruised.
But I am a gardener. And I know that just because a tiny portion of a vegetable is damaged, it doesn’t mean the whole thing is bad. It’s more of a the glass half full sort of thing.
All I know is this… I like free food. And I’m not afraid to feed it to my family. After all, that’s how I feed my family for one hundred dollars a month. A few coupons, a few barters, a little gardening, and a little bit of free food. Life is good!
Want to see what else I’ve brought home over the past 2 months? Check out the stories below.
To learn more about the food waste epidemic in America, check out the book American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What We Can Do About It)
Kim says
This still amazes me. The amount they throw out is astonishing. I need to check with my local stores.
Challice says
Wow. I wish we had more open minded grocery stores here.
Have you ever read the book, The Man Who Quit Money?
I actually disagree with a LOT of that book but the one thing he had going for him was that he was trying to reduce the waste that America has.
Teresa A says
Mavis, have you looked at the yonana? It is great for using up fruit and making healthy ice cream. My kids love it and we use so much fruit this way it is great addition to my families diet. Also you can freeze that watermelon and probably the other melons in cubes and put in the blender with powder lemonade for a wonderfully refreshing smoothly.
Thanks for sharing your loot!
Lara Fara says
I finally called my local market!
Not as bountiful as the delightful boxes you have been getting.
I got actual chicken scraps 🙂 Gave them to my neighbor with chickens.
Round #1
LOTS of green cabbage leaves!
Here’s to wasting less.
Lissa says
Week 6 here! I am just loving the consistency of some things in my boxes and the randomness of others.
5 ears corn
4 romaine hearts
1 leaf lettuce
14 Roma tomatoes
4lbs strawberries
12 oz blueberries
3 cucumbers
1 bunch broccoli rabe
handful of peas
1 orange
1 tangerine
1 peach
1 leek
1 pablano pepper
12 assorted chili peppers
2″ piece of ginger
So exciting! My coworkers love what I share with them and so does my neighbor with a tortoise. 😀
Mavis says
Nice job Lisa!
Lissa says
On a side note:
I tried your Chickpeas with Broccoli Raab & Bacon recipe…..AMAZING! Seriously, so so good. Thanks for sharing all of the recipes, I’ve saved a number of them 🙂 Also played with leeks for the first time this week – Leek Au Gratin anyone? I’m really happy with how much my cooking and eating vocabulary has increased since I started this Adventure in Reclaimed Produce!
Mavis says
It’s fun isn’t it. 🙂
Lena says
Hey, I love watching your 100 dollars a month and watched you on another blog last year do the challenge and I’m just curious, do you find the 100$ a month a lot easier to manage than last year when you weren’t doing the chicken scraps?
Since you’re not spending money on fruits and vegetables as much, what, if anything, do you spend the money on now?
Do you find that you are eating less meat in your household now? Do you think you eat healthier now with all these “chicken scraps?”
Sorry for all the questions, I’m just really interested in how big of a difference getting these scraps have made in your lives and eating habits!
Mavis says
I think we are eating a lot healthier now because I am not buying as much junk/processed food as I was last year. I think we are eating about the same amount of meat, and yes, the chicken scraps have helped fill the fruit and veggie void while we are waiting for the garden to go gangbusters. 🙂
Dawn McCloskey says
I so wish our local stores would do his… Thanks for stating it to them on your blog, now if we could just get them to read it??? Ugh! Where I live I had even tried joining what we call the gleaners. It’s how I got my youngest daughter through her first year of diapers and formula (I couldn’t nurse her). We don’t have one like I was used to in Portland, Oregon. The reason I was given is that it out here Yamhill county the stores don’t give them what they used to. So frustrating! My ex-husband used to work for a trucking company and anything that was “damaged” during shipping was tossed into the trash. The trucking company wouldn’t let the employees take it home and the stores they delivered to wouldn’t take them. Often times in one large box, many smaller items would be packed. So the other 99 items were fine but one item damaged and it all had to go into the trash… We are hugely wasteful Americans. It’s sad…
Laura @ Laura Williams' Musings says
We Reclaim food as well. Great posts.
Your links at the bottom of your post to your other posts in this series all link to the #1 post except the #6. Thought you would want to know so it could be fixed.
Mavis says
Thank you. 🙂
Tiffany Kerns says
I have been paying $3/box from my local small grocery store for reclaimed veggies. About 1/3 goes to the chickens next door and the rest is totally edible. My question for you is: what are you doing will all the corn? I had 25 ears this week and 20 were still just fine. I haven’t frozen corn before…??Thoughts since we can’t really eat corn on the cob for 3 days in a row without getting burned out. Also, zucchini (say 30 small) I shared with my neighbors. Help. I can’t complain about really cheap produce but these quantities give me pause and I don’t want to “waste” this 🙂
Michelle says
Wow. I am just as amazed every single time…if not moreso. It’s sad, really, how much food is thrown away. Especially with children going hungry. Families going hungry. I don’t blame the grocery stores either…but it’s a shame that they aren’t allowed to give it away. I bet there are others like you, or maybe someone who runs a shelter, that would be willing to take the time to clean it all up and feed it to those in need.
I like the connection you made between being a gardener and not expecting produce to be perfect. I know that is so true…if I grow it and it has a small blemish I trim it and use the rest or sometimes I even toss it in blemish and all! I guess that comes from knowing where my food came from…my own backyard, my own hands, pesticide free, etc.
Good for you for making lemonade out of lemons…you rock.