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.

It was like Christmas I tell you.

Spring is here and it was pretty obvious that people are in the mood to buy fresh fruits and vegetables again.

I hope you are sitting down, because the pictures of the free food we were able to pick up from Mr. Produce Guy this week  pretty much speak for themselves about what consumers expect when they buy fruits and veggies at the grocery store.

When you actually grow your own food, you look at fruits and vegetables a little differently. On a basic level, you know that everything you pull out of the soil, or pick off a tree or bush is not going to be perfect.

But when you go to the grocery store and have to pay $2 {or more} for a pint of raspberries, you expect every little berry in that tiny plastic clam shell to be without any blemishes.

Suddenly the thought of picking out 3 bad berries to save the rest of the bunch becomes unheard of.

3 bad blueberries ruined this container.

This cucumber was discard because it had a minor defect.

Twisted carrots? Who on earth would buy those? And the same goes for broken carrots too.

A little nick in an apple? How absurd. Who would pay full price for one of those?

I have no idea what was wrong with this organic lettuce.

Yep, nobody wants bad fruit. It’s useless. It should all be tossed. Not fit for human consumption. Nope. Not at all.

Maybe my standards are low, but all this still looked edible to me.

~Mavis

Would you like to see what other FREE food I 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.

To read more on the topic of food waste.  Check out the book Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal By Tristram Stuart.

There was a big variety of free fresh produce for both the chickens and my family this week in the 3 reclaimed produce boxes we picked up from Mr. Produce Guy. This whole reclaimed produce thing started last April {you can read about it HERE} and after doing it for about 10 months now I can only imagine the amount of money we’ve saved.

It still amazes how much food is wasted in our country {40% by some accounts} and makes me wonder what people growing up during the great depression would have thought about it. Crazy stuff if you ask me. Spending the time, money, and resources to grow food, only to throw it away seems pretty lame, but it happens.

Here is what I picked up from Mr. Produce Guy this past week:

We used some of the lettuce last night for tacos, and I’ll probably make lettuce wraps and a salad with the rest. As for the apples, they’ll be going in the dehydrator this morning for apple chips and the strawberries will be frozen to use later in smoothies. The radishes will be great for snacking, and I’m sure I’ll find something to do with that wee bit of reclaimed spinach.

Any ideas?

Have you approached your local grocery about picking up produce that’s headed for the dumpster? Any luck? Any tips for others trying to do this?

~Mavis

Would you like to see what else we have brought home over the past 10  months?

Head on over HERE to read all the past stories and to see all the pictures.

Apparently everyone and their brother bought fruits and vegetables for Super Bowl party platters over the weekend because there were only 2 boxes of “chicken scraps” this week.

However, I was pretty hopeful when I saw the 2 reclaimed produce boxes. Once I started going though the fruits and vegetables though,  I noticed the lettuce was all wilted, the grapes were soft and the majority of the pears were super mushy.

But, on a positive note, I scored some free celery, apples for the kids lunches, a few pears for snacking and a good sized bowl of firm red grapes. Beggars can’t be choosers, and I get that. So I was happy with what I was able to get for free.

Black Fatty and her crew on the other had are no so picky.

Wilted lettuce, mushy pears, and overly ripe cantaloupe are right up their alley. I keep telling myself with all the fruits and vegetables I plan to grow this summer, I’m going to need a pig. But I’m not sure if Black Fatty and the others would approve. After all, they are the most spoiled chickens in suburbia. And if we brought home a Mr. Bacon, all his rooting noises might just be to much for them.

Well see.

Peace Out Girl Scouts, have a great day.

~Mavis

Would you like to see what else we have brought home over the past 10 months?

Head on over HERE to read all the past stories and to see all the pictures.

I was going to sit here and tell you I didn’t keep the cantaloupe melon because all the bottoms were soft and mushy. And how the majority of the grapes had brown spots on them, and how after a long weekend I didn’t feel like picking through them for the potential keepers.

I was also going to mention that although there was an entire case of lettuce, I only kept a few heads for my family, and divided up the rest between our chickens and Girly Girls, and that the mangos looked a little iffy so I passed on salvaging them for smoothies.

I think I was going to complain.

But once the pictures were on my computer screen, my mind went immediately to the book I had finished on the plane ride home from Denver. The Glass Castle. Have you read it?

It put a whole different perspective on the fruit and vegetables I had kept.

I bet if the Walls children had come across these same 3 boxes of discard produce, they would have sat there and ate every single piece of their bounty. And here I was, giving most of it away to our pet chickens.

~Mavis

Head on over HERE to read all the past reclaimed food stories and to see all the pictures.