I ate today:
8 a.m.--3/4 of a cantaloupe
12 p.m.--2 1/2 C. romaine lettuce, 1/2 red pepper, chopped, 1/2 C. grated carrot, 1/4 C. broccoli sprouts, 4 or 5 small stalks of raw asparagus, a dressing made with 1/2 avocado (not ripe enough), the juice of a lime, 2 stalks of celery and some water
3:30 p.m.--2 grapefruits, peeled
6 p.m.--3 C. romaine, 1/2 C. sliced cucumber, 1/2 C. orange pepper, chopped, 2 stalks raw asparagus, 1/4 C. chopped celery, some creamy tahini and lemon dressing
9:30 p.m.--a handful of red grapes while I was washing them up
30% fat today... I have to work on this. If only I liked bananas.
Today, my mood matched the weather. Cloudy, with gentle sprinkles here and there and then some drizzle later on.
This morning I had a training session on how to man the Master Gardener Helpline. I took the Master Gardener class this spring and it was fantastic. I don't feel like a "Master" Gardener, though. I am the least experienced gardener in the group. Today, we discussed plant identification (I know very little!) and showed how to use various resources to figure out what plant you're dealing with and what's wrong with it. I brought the girls along with library books, coloring books, scissors and catalogs to cut, and snacks, of course. They were very good during the two hour meeting. I was so proud of them. Many people complimented me on how sweet and well-behaved they were.
The afternoon disappeared quickly in a combination of housecleaning, kid-care, and time online.
After dinner, my husband and I took the kids to see a free band concert at the local community college. It was a bit disappointing. The band was, well, very amateur. The kids enjoyed it... sort-of. They didn't have the patience to sit still for a whole hour (except my 5 year-old, who fell asleep), so we left before the last piece. My son asked lots of questions about the different instruments and really liked all of the percussion equipment. The baby liked the cymbal crashes.
On the way home, we swung into Aldi's parking lot. I swear, I'm addicted to dumpster diving now! I saw that the dumpster was pretty full--they clear out to make way for the new stuff on Friday and Saturday, I think. I grabbed a case of grapes from on top and planned to come back later. I was a bit skittish about getting caught, as the store had closed and the employees were about to leave for the night. I don't think anything bad would happen, except that all the employees recognize me. So what, right? I just don't want to be told, "You're not allowed," because I would of course follow that directive and then, my dumpster fun would be over.
I did go back a little after 10 and most of what I had seen was gone. Who else is diving? Makes me glad I grabbed those grapes! I still got a fair bit. Here's a list:
For us, I got:
16 pounds of grapes (I had to pick through them and throw away about 2 pounds)
5 colored peppers
2 pkgs. portabello mushrooms
18 limes
16 lemons
1 pkg. roma tomatoes
For friends, neighbors and family I got:
12 green peppers
12 pkgs. button mushrooms
10 lbs. of russet potatoes
5 comments:
I just found your blog! I have a lot to catch up on looks like! I havn't been on SP much lately but I am re-comitting tomorrow back to 811! YAY!!
Dumpster diving for produce? wow nice. what condition are the foods in. I know aldi's here throws their stuff away too but I never thought about going to get it. Even if it was too old I could give it to some of the wild animals that wander into town (put it in the woods to keep them from having to come into town).
Please send me email and tell me more! I'm excited about this!
Hi Ginger,
Thanks for visiting. I swore off the computer and here I am blogging. Hee hee. Seems I have more time and energy than I thought.
Yay to re-committing! Keep in touch if you need support.
Marjorie
Hi FUD,
Yeah, diving at Aldi is awesome. I am still trying to get an idea of how their schedule works so I can go at the optimal times.
Because Aldi packages all of their produce, it is usually somewhat protected from the yuckiness of the dumpster. Also, if a package of peppers (or whatever) gets crushed and one pepper is ruined, then they throw out the three-pack with two great peppers left in there.
This is why I got so many grapes yesterday. All of the packages had a few moldy grapes at the bottom, so they threw the whole package away.
Finally, they get shipments in and they throw away the older shipments, regardless of their quality. This is why there are perfectly good lemons and limes in the dumpster. They got a new shipment and people will only buy the newer looking fruit, so they just throw the "old" stuff away, even though it's perfectly good.
So get out there! Keep good food out of a landfill. Even the rotten stuff I compost and put back into the Earth.
In my ideal world, I would be eating only the freshest, local, organic produce. But since I can't always afford that, dumpster diving seems like the next best alternative for my family and our planet.
Yours green-ly,
Marjorie
I don't think they would tell you you're not allowed. We used to do that for awhile when we had alot of rabits actually. They got to know us and even told us what times they toss the stuff so after that much of it didn't even hit the dumpster!
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