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................................