Monday, August 2, 2010

What can YOU get for $2?


This entire pile of produce in this picture cost me $2.


Having the chickens, I've been brainstorming about ways to feed them fresh fruits and veggies on the cheap. I know that grocery stores throw out old produce, but I was curious to see what constitutes a "reject". Grocery stores live and die by the quality of their produce and their meat...it will drive a customer to, or away from, a store. So I had a hunch that the produce they threw out wouldn't be that bad.


I called up the produce manager of a local store and told him I was trying to help feed chickens economically, and he agreed to call me when he had a boxful of rejects. This Saturday he gave me a call, and I retrieved a whole banana box of scratch-and-dent produce for the low low price of TWO DOLLARS! Here is what I got:


6 heads of organic broccoli

about 14 apples

1 beautiful pear with one tiny blemish

5 bags of precut stirfry (YUMMY!)

1 bag of celery (for the birds--not a fan of celery!)


I made an amazing stir-fry with those cut veggies--they are wonderful. They had only gone out of code the day before and still looked really good.


OK so I am sharing the birds' food but this produce is in just-about-perfect condition. WHERE was this going to end up? THE GARBAGE. What a shame, but what a good thing that I got it!


Stewardship...fiscal responsbility...conserving resources...food for thought................................

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