Mr. Produce Guy had 2 boxes of reclaimed produce waiting for us when we stopped by the local market this week. There was more lettuce than you could imagine along with grapes, pears and corn.

Inspector Lucy learned she lives celery.

As for the rest of the produce, well, we decided to sit this one out. If would have had the extra time, I could have cut out the good parts out of the corn and froze it. But I didn’t.

I also didn’t bother with the pears {too mushy} or the grapes.

It’s kind of weird in a way how we’ve become accustomed to getting so much great produce over the past year. If we were truly needy, or this were the depression era or even if I was living in The Glass Castle, I would have saved every ounce of the produce.

And now after looking at these pictures again, I feel bad The Girl and I didn’t pick through the boxes and save any of the fruits and vegetables.

It’s pretty rare around here that all the free produce goes to the chickens, but this week, they got it all.

~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.

This week there were only 2 boxes of free produce from our local grocery store. I just about fell over when I saw all the watermelon. I mean really, we can only eat so much.

Has anyone ever tried freezing watermelon? Can it be done? If so I’m thinking a few chunks of watermelon might go nicely in a smoothie or something. I’ve dehydrated watermelon before, but I don’t think I have tried to freeze it.

We kept 5 giant tubs of melon {so far we have polished off 3 tubs} and a small bowl of strawberries for ourselves and gave the rest of the reclaimed produce to our  flock of backyard chickens.

No matter how you look at it, free is free. And even though the pickings this week were slim, we are still happy to have them.

Peace Out Girl Scouts, have a great day.

~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.

This week there were 2 boxes of chicken scraps to pick up from Mr. Produce Guy.  At first glance I wasn’t sure there would be much to reclaim. But after I lifted up the bags of grapes and knew I had hit the jackpot.

Mama Mia! Holy tomatoes batman!

We did have to toss a few tomatoes but we made several batches of homemade tomato sauce with the rest.

There were also lot of of salad greens but strawberries and other veggies were tossed into the leafy greens. Instead of digging through them we decided to give the entire box of salad to the chickens.

2 tubs  of Organic Girl super greens were free because of the sale date stamped on the container.

Fresh grapes! We LOVE grapes around here and the kids especially love to pack them in their lunches.

A huge box of tomatoes, organic salad greens and grapes. Not to shabby for free if you ask me.

Have YOU been successful trying to get your local grocery to give you their scraps? Does your store donate their extra produce or is it tossed in to a dumpster?

Mavis wants to know.

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.

I just about fell over when I first saw the 30 boxes of strawberries. My immediate thought was strawberry jam. Then strawberry smoothies, then what the heck am I going to do with all these berries?

The chickens have some pretty fierce competition these days for the free produce scraps.

At this point I still don’t know what I’m going to do this summer when all the veggies start growing. Keeping her out of the garden beds is going to be a challenge for sure. I will admit though, vegetables are a wee bit tastier than shoes. Lets just hope she doesn’t turn in to a total food snob. Ha!

Does anyone know what the shelf life of the typical grocery store strawberry that has been trucked in from California or Mexico is?  My backyard strawberries only last about 24 hours on the kitchen counter before they start to go bad.

But then again, I don’t use chemicals and my berries are about 1/3 of the size.

From the 30+ pounds of strawberries Mr. Produce Guy gave me this week, this was all we were able to reclaim. Sadly, the chickens don’t care for strawberries, so on to the compost heap the bad ones go. As for the good ones, I think I’ll make some jam today.

Something is always better than nothing.

Peace Out Girl Scouts, have a great day.

~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.

I’m not sure why but I always get a little excited when I see bagged lettuce in the produce “scrap boxes” Mr. Produce Guy sets aside for me each week. Maybe because I know the chances are really high that is only one or two bad leaves in there and that we’ll be eating salad out of season.

See what I mean. In the consumers eye, one leaf ruins the whole bag. If you were to spot a package on a grocers shelf you’d totally pick a different bag of lettuce.

I have no idea what was wrong with this beet, or the two other I found in the boxes of reclaimed food. Maybe you see something I don’t because all I see is a plate of free roasted beets.

Lucy and her peppers. I bagged up the good ones and tossed them in the refrigerator for her to eat/play with later in the week. When the weather is nice she likes to sun herself on the back lawn and chase raw vegetables around the yard. She doesn’t seem to mind that they don’t chase her back, but she sure has a good time.

She also stole some perfectly good lettuce.

In case you didn’t know, puggles like zucchini.

Not a huge week, but I think I did pretty good. 2 giant bags of lettuce which I’ll use for salads and tacos, apples for lunches, bananas and spinach for smoothies, beets for roasting, and a few radishes for snacking.

If I had to guess, I’d say there is about $20 worth of free produce right there.

Wahooo! I love free fruits and vegetables.

Have you tried asking your grocer for their cast offs yet? If so, was it a big chain store or a local market? Let us know in the comments below.

Have a great day,

~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.

It was another magnificent week in the reclaimed food department.  My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as I was unloading all the fruits and veggies from the boxes.

I’m not sure what’s harder to believe, all this food was going to be thrown away, or that we as consumers have become so picky that grocery stores automatically toss fruits and vegetables when they have even the slightest blemish on them.

This week instead of me telling you what I think was wrong with the vegetables, I would like you to tell me what you see. Would you have bought this produce at it’s regular sale price, at a discount, or would you have passed on it all together?

It’s hard to imagine that all of this food was going to be tossed. It all looks perfectly fine to me {well, except that one brown spot on the cauliflower}.

Food waste in America, it’s just plain crazy if you ask me.

~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.

Got scraps? Check out the ebook From Garbage to Gourmet: Prevent Food Waste and Create Delicious Food out of Things You Normally Throw Away.

I must admit I was a little excited when I saw all those bags of grapes and 1 pound boxes of strawberries when I picked up the reclaimed food boxes this week from Mr. Produce Guy.

Even though there were only 2 boxes of scraps saved for us, there were still plenty of treasures.

Umm, especially grapes.

The Girl and I could not figure out why the grapes had been tossed because they were all in excellent condition.  There were so many in fact, I ended up giving a few bags of both red and green seedless grapes away to one of my neighbors.

It was crazy!

Sadly a lot of the strawberries were not salvageable, but  it looks like I’ll be making banana bread again this week, and the kids will have grapes in their lunch every single day. Not to shabby if you ask me. I don’t know about you, but I love free  food.

How much do grapes sell for this time of year anyway? Does anyone know?

~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.

It was another awesome possum week in the reclaimed produce department. Every week people ask how I am able to get all this produce for free.

And the answer is really, really simple.

I just asked.

“While I was out running errands, I stopped by my favorite produce market to inquire about possibly picking up “scraps” for my chickens once a week.  Although the shopkeeper was a little hesitant at first, he finally agreed to let me come by once a week and pick up whatever scraps were available on that particular day. 

The reason he was a little hesitant was because people had come in before asking for free scraps, and then they don’t show up, leaving him with boxes and boxes of rotting produce. So I thanked him {profusely} and promised I would be back on the set date to pick up the scraps.   April 23, 2012 – Mavis

In the end, what is really boils down to is making a connection, and following through. There have been a couple of weeks over the past year when I was not able to pick up the produce because I was out of town. But I always called or stopped by and let Mr. Produce Guy know I would not be picking up the produce on our set pick up day.

There are grocery stores, produce stands, farms and shops all over the world that would be willing to give away their scraps, if someone would just come pick them up. You just have to find one.

I’ll totally admit, I got lucky. The first store I asked said yes. And no, I won’t  name the store, because big or small, chain store or Mom and Pop, East Coast, West Coast, each individual store will be different.

If you are turned down by the first store, keep asking around. The worst thing they can do is tell you no. Hopefully, if this type of thing appeals to you, at some point, you will find your Mr. Produce Guy.

It never hurts to ask.

Peace Out Girl Scouts, now go forth and find some free food {if you want}.

~Mavis

American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food

Would you like to see what else we have brought home over the past 11 months?

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.