Over the weekend I was able to pick up 4 boxes of “chickens scraps” from a local store. We were able to salvage a little over half of the fresh and fruits and vegetables you see above. For the third week in a row, I was astounded by the amount of perfectly edible strawberries I was able to save.
The Girl and I ended up freezing 5 full sized cookie sheets full of berries, as well as giving some to Mrs. Hillbilly in exchange for a lemon {to make strawberry ice cream}.
After 3 hours of sorting, discarding, and repackaging, there were 2 full boxes of actual scraps for the chickens. And in all honesty, we could have saved a little more out of the boxes, but decided to call it a day.
From the four boxes of scraps, we were able to keep:
- 7 gallons of strawberries
- 1 papaya
- 1/2 of a watermelon
- 3/4 of a pineapple
- 3 red pears
- 5 yellow pears
- 3 lbs grapes
- 10 cabbage leaves
- 9 green peppers
- 1 1/2 cucumbers
- 9 apples
- 1 cantaloupe
- 1/2 of a honey-dew melon
- 2 ears of corn
- 25+ tomatoes
- 9 heads of lettuce
- 3 spinach leaves
Besides sipping strawberry and papaya smoothies twice a day and eating fresh fruit around the clock, I was also able to whip up batches of strawberry ice cream, homemade tomato sauce and 2 bottles of strawberry syrup {for pancakes}.
Oh my word.
I still think this is amazing. All this was destined for the trash/compost by the store. Yet look how much was still edible.
If you are interested in trying this yourself, I want to encourage you to ask your local store/ farm stand for their scraps. The worst thing they can do is say no.
It never hurts to ask.
You can read more on the topic of food waste in Jonathan Bloom’s book American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What We Can Do About It)
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Jamie says
What is your strawberry syrup recipe? Looks so good!
Mavis says
Hi Jamie, I will post it tomorrow. 🙂
Page M says
I think Americans do waste so much food and money, but I also think it’s because we over-obligate ourselves and actually have less time than anything else. While I was reading your post I was wondering how many of us actually have 3 hours (in a row) to spend salvaging perfectly edible food. Unfortunately, the opportunity cost is just too great for many Americans! Here is the paradox: The lack of time that most Americans suffer from, allows you to acquire all that free food! It’s funny how these things work! I think it’s awesome what you are doing and I wish we could all be so resourceful!
Mavis says
I think you bring up a very good point. 🙂
Tracie says
It comes down to what people want. They want to keep up with the Jones. Buy the biggest and the best and thus they have to work crazy hours and let their kids do a crazy amount of sports. I was one of those people..We make low 6 figures a year. Now I coupon am starting a garden and looking at not wasting time money or resorces. Oh ya I quit that job. When you get to spend 3 hours with your child sorting and cutting up fruit it is the best time spent….I have happier healthier kids. I am hoping that they can see working for bigfaces less and working for your family is much more rewarding than having those motor cycles or a boats and toys…You have all the time in the world. You have to decide what is more inportant to you!
Page M says
I couldn’t agree more Tracie! We don’t live that fast-paced lifestyle at all! We are a one-income ($45,000.00 a year) family of 4 and we don’t have “toys” or take nice vacations. My kids wear second hand clothes and we drive used cars. Our house is small, less than 1200 sq. ft. and we have very little property to go with it. I was just making the point that one man’s loss is another man’s gain and Mavis has found a way to use her abundance of time to get things she needs for next to nothing. It’s quite practical and I’ve always believed that it’s not about how much you make, it’s what you do with it that counts. I spend most of my spare time trying to teach my daughters to give their time and hard work helping others. We are a very ministry and mission minded family and I wouldn’t have it any other way 🙂
Tracie says
Fantasitic! Giving is great and better than any toys that only feel good till the first payment has to be made!
Michelle says
I am very impressed…and very disgusted at the same time. I am impressed by you…and disgusted by our American ways. (And French ways, too as it seems they are wasteful as well) All of this food you “gleaned” could have made a LOT of meals. And it was just going to go in the trash? Pathetic really. I have asked at a few of our local stores and they don’t allow anyone to take the “scraps”…legal reasons. However, now that I think about it, I do know the guy at the grocery store up on the hill…he’s a friend’s husband. Maybe he’d stick a box out for me now and then. I will definitely ask him next time. Way to go Mavis…love your thrifty ways!
Mavis says
Ask him Figgs!
Danyelle says
Michelle, funny that you should mention French wastefulness. I happen to have a degree in French Literature, and in France it’s called “Gaspillage.” Wasting things is a French tradition that the nobles started, the Revolution tried to stop, and then the surviving people decided to continue with modern “gaspillage.” OK, stopping my brief-ish explanation. B)
Emma Benefiel says
any chance you will post the recipe for the tomatoe sauce? I am amazed at what you get each week. Thank you
Mavis says
I just posted the recipe. 🙂 Yum Yum!
Ashley says
What do you do with so much lettuce? Anything other than salad? We struggle to finish lettuce because it doesn’t keep long and DH can only handle 1 salad a week (fussy….).
Heather says
You could use them in place of tortilla shells and make tacos (beef, fish, etc) or we use them as the bread to tuna sandwiches and just make “boats” out of the lettuce. One more idea is to make the PF Chang version of their chicken with lettuce wraps. 🙂 It isn’t even 8AM and I am hungry for dinner already!
Ashley says
Thanks for the ideas! Probably wouldn’t fly with hubby, but I could always freeze some fillings for lettuce tacos for a quick lunch for myself!
Patti says
Love the idea of replacing the lettuce for tortilla shells!! I am g-free and have been struggling to find/make a decent replacement for the soft flour tortilla shells. At best the g-free ones are barely tolerable. But lettuce for the shell!!……….hey that’s a win-win!
gloria says
Love this post, Mavis. Food waste is a huge pet peeve of mine. Both our own household’s waste and as a nation in general. Growing up poor we didn’t know where our next meal was coming from most days. If not for the kindness of church folks, neighbors and friends we would have gone hungry. My husband grew up entirely differently and when we were newlyweds I was shocked that he made decisions of what to eat based on what he was “in the mood for”. This is a good reminder to be generous with our excess and grateful that we live in a land of plenty.
jennifer says
I too am glad you posted this and want to step out of my comfort zone and just ask……did you go to the fruit/veggie stand and establish and become a familiar face before asking? Did you say how many chickens you have??
Mavis says
Yes and Yes. 🙂
KC says
Have you considered drying or making fruit leather out of some of the strawberries? Another possibility is to juice them, strain, boil down, and can/freeze/bottle the concentrate – it’s a great boost for pies, sauces, jam, etc., and can be used to make strawberry lemonade (or beverages of a different nature).
Keep an eye out for strawberry allergies, though!
Good luck! 🙂
Mavis says
Thanks KC. Strawberry lemonade and fruit leather are next on my list. 🙂
Joy V. says
I am Loving this portion of your blog – I could see myself doing something similar. I love free! Thank you for showing us all that you do with the excess food – and I can’t wait to see what you do with all that you harvest from your garden. Thank you!
Krista says
These are some of my favorite posts! It’s so much fun seeing what you can reclaim and what you’ve done with your loot.
Lissa says
This was my week 2 with reclaimed foods. Last week I got 9 heads of lettuce, a pound of carrots, and a pound of celery. Plus TONS of lettuce scraps truly fit for chickens 🙂 I was happy and excited but still quite envious of you, Mavis!
This week I called the little local grocery store ahead of time (as the very nice produce guy told me to do when I stopped in there last week). Then I popped by there and the local natural foods co-op grocery on my way home from work this morning. I have a bunch of lettuce trimmings to take to work for coworkers who actually HAVE chickens, but here’s MY tally:
6 Roma tomatoes
4 ears corn
2 pounds strawberries (now I wish I hadn’t bought 2 pounds at the Grocery Outlet this morning!) (1lb prob organic)
2 pablano peppers (prob. organic)
1 organic pink lady apple
1 orange
I am SO thrilled!! I made mango & pablano pepper quesadillas with corn on the cob and chipotle beans for dinner, followed with sliced strawberries for dessert. OOP expense for the meal: $0.38!! Seriously, Mavis – THANK YOU! I’m going to make a batch of tomato sauce to freeze for homemade eggplant lasagna from my tomatos and will enjoy the fruit this week — and not have to buy a single item of produce!
Mavis says
Wahoooo! Good job Lissa!
Heather says
So I saw your blog and just started following it…two days ago! I love your ideas and overall philosophy. So I started calling local stores and asking what they did with their leftover produce. 5 stores later I found my match! This is awesome and I could not believe that they just throw it away!
Mavis says
Way to go Heather! 🙂
CathyB says
While it is wasteful, I can totally understand why the stores throw out so much. So much of the produce is prepackaged in specific weights and to pull out the few bad strawberries or carrots or potatoes and then pay a person to sort through and make the packages back to the right weight would not be very cost-effective. Also it seems that once one strawberry starts to mold it is only about a day or so before the rest in the box are going to go as well. At home you can be diligent in using up or freezing them before this happens, but as you can imagine it would be a logistical nightmare for a store to keep track of this. So I can understand why it is more profitable to them to just pull the whole box or bag if it finds a “bad apple”. It is one thing if you are getting it free or reduced price, but completely another to pay full price and then find that half your purchase is inedible. So all-in-all I don’t fault the stores for throwing out so much. What I do fault them for is generally being reluctant to allow others to glean from their discards. If a person has enough time, energy and motivation to take the discards and make it into something useful, then I think it should be allowed!
Mavis says
I can totally understand why it is more cost effective for the stores to toss it. I’m just glad to be able to have the time to pick it up rather than see it go to waste. 🙂
Mavis says
I can totally understand why it is more cost effective for the stores to toss it. I’m just glad to be able to have the time to pick it up rather than see it go to waste. 🙂
Lynda says
Great post. I get my repurposed foods from the local school. I asked for the scraps to feed my 2 hogs and 30 chickens…most is still 100% perfect. I keep some for home use and the rest feeds the animals…it is amazing how much is thrown away!
Holly says
Yesterday I was able to pick up a Cauliflower, 2 pounds of Strawberries, a zucchini, about 1 pound of peppers, 3 heads of lettuce, 8 pounds of potatoes, a lime, 12 ears of corn, about 3 pounds of globe grapes and 3 onions.
Tuesdays have not been great at my site, but last Wednesday was wonderful. I am pulling my 8th batch of dried apples out of the dehydrator.
Thanks for the great idea for the strawberry ice cream. My local Albertson’s had some vanilla yogurt marked down to $.25 so I mixed it together with the macerated fruit and ran it through the ice cream machine – Yum.
Mavis says
Nice work Holly!
Tracie says
Just an FYI Clintion signed a good faith bill that would protect the stores if they dontate this kind of stuff to people.
CrownofJules says
I was so inspired by your food salvaging last week, I drove right off after work, using my last bit of gas I’d save for the weekend to visit all four stores in town to ask for “chicken scraps”. First store sells their “cuttings” and trash (yes, trash – plastic bags/cardboard/veggie nets) for $5 a bag. The day I was there the bag was mostly corn husks and cardboard. Not even chickens can eat that. *pout*
The second store won’t give out refuse produce because, apparently, folks in town were so greedy, the crowds went from pushing matches to fist-fights. And their dumpsters are on surveillance.
The third store’s old produce belongs to the owner (home-town-style grocer) for her poultry… and she won’t share. At all. I asked her.
Pretty heartbroken by now.
Last store.
Walmart.
A local farmer picks up all bad produce for his farm. He has a contract with the store for removal. And I have to listen to this whilst the employee is tossing out grape tomatoes and bins of blueberries. Right in front of me.
Any tips on what I can say or do now? These four stores are the only ones within 90 miles of my home.
Michael says
Mavis- have a question: there are groups called “Gleaners”, that generally pick up these types of boxes from grocery stores (at least, in Snohomish county) and even Costco- getting not only veggies but expiring dairy and baked goods. How did you convince your grocery store to give to YOU vs. food banks or gleaners groups?