It's become a thing for us to run up the grocery on a weekend for food to make dinner. Her fridge is usually pretty simple. A few over ripe vegetables that need to be eaten, Margarine bowls of comfort foods like chicken and rice, or goulash and 10 or 12 dozen eggs. Sometimes spoiled milk. I have been known to drink out of the milk carton only to realize that is on its way to spoiling.
Just after the cold snap last winter, she decided that she wanted to see if we could find some greens and fruits for the chickens and geese. It was a cold winter and she wanted to give them a treat.
Dumpster diving is not new for me. My brother and I learned this art when we were kids. He has better stories than I do, but you can find some gems if you are persistent. Most of my college furniture digs were found items behind stores. It's pretty standard practice to carry a milk crate and tongs for the long reaches. I also carry bags too.
Not to mention the food waste in this country is crazy. My mom tells me stories that as a child she would get the old food scraps from grocery stores to feed her mom's chickens. But, like anything else behaviors and laws change. Each year, the United States throws away one - third of all food it produces. 133 billion pounds of food. This is a problem. http://www.businessinsider.com/why-grocery-stores-throw-out-so-much-food-2014-10
Anyway, we typically find a broken watermelon, melons or greens that the everyone love to eat. Everyone's happy.
Not to mention the food waste in this country is crazy. My mom tells me stories that as a child she would get the old food scraps from grocery stores to feed her mom's chickens. But, like anything else behaviors and laws change. Each year, the United States throws away one - third of all food it produces. 133 billion pounds of food. This is a problem. http://www.businessinsider.com/why-grocery-stores-throw-out-so-much-food-2014-10
Anyway, we typically find a broken watermelon, melons or greens that the everyone love to eat. Everyone's happy.
It was a rainy and cold day anyway and we really didn't what do any work outside. So, we decided to have a baking day.
Anyway, we had the oven on for hours and the house was very warm so no need to build a fire. We made jelly rolls, sponge cakes, bundt cakes. Anything that took a lot of eggs. After all, we did have 53 dozen eggs. Clearly, happy chickens lay eggs.
Not only was the cookbook vintage, I found some cream of tartar in a little metal container dated 1972. Believe it or not, it worked and we used it. The rust around the can was a pretty good sign that maybe it was time to pick up more.
Needless to say, me and the Chicken Lady had a grand old time drinking way too much coffee talking about the past and eating cake. Good visit.
