Before the storm

Last Thursday there was a meet up to go diving and a few friends came along to see what we could recover before the forecasted snow storm came the next day. We found lots of good stuff including:

2 cases(~120) Uncrustable sandwiches

16 tomatoes

bunch of bananas

5 jalapanoes

2 bell peppers

3 organic avocados

4 apples

1 bag cranberry beans

1 bag bagles

3 boxes organic yogurt tubes

2 packs organic butternut squash-apple yogurt

8 individual yogurt cartons

box mushrooms

3 cans New England clam chowder

2 cans evaporated milk

loaf Hawaiian king sweet bread

4 boxes granola bars

3 bags barbecue chips

3 heads romaine lettuce

box baby romaine 

fresh ginger

frozen chicken breasts

This is just the stuff that I brought home, and unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of everything before putting it all away.. I had lots of stuff to cook while snowed in for three days!

Random..

After school today I was driving home when I saw a big red suit case next to the dumpsters outside a house, so I promptly turned around and went back to investigate. It seemed to be fine so I tossed it in the back seat and was on my way. Upon closer inspection when I got back home, I discovered that the top handle had been broken off which must be why it was tossed, although it's otherwise in good condition. Inside, the was a small plastic trash can and an allen wrench set,  much nicer than the one Ive got in my bikes saddlebag.

Basil had to come check everything out.. maybe this is the suitcase we will be living out of in Hawai'i...?  

Finally, Pies!

My best friend's little brother is shipping off to Army boot camp. Its very sad. His going away party was last night so we all got together to send him off well. Later on we all rendezvoused back at Laura's, but on my way over there I decided to stop at the store to pick up some late night snacks. I didn't dig deep but I found some good stuff:

10 pie crusts
16oz block cheddar cheese
bag sliced cheddar
3 loaves bread
veggie platter
box of baby greens

The veggie tray looked good but didn't taste good... There was a big bag of fish filets that must have dripped all over it or something because it smelled fishy and had a weird taste;  we decided against eating it. I left some cheese, bread and a pie crust with Laura.
 I was excited about the pie crusts because Ive been talking about baking pies for ages, but have not had any flour to make the crust dough with. It wont be as tasty as if I had made it, but ill settle for a pre-made crust. The last pie I made was soooo good but my fav is blueberry and I still have all those bags of fruit in the freezer from whenever we found those.. or perhaps peach-blueberry? Ill have to think on it. At first, I only grabbed a couple boxes, but after considering my love for pies, I went back on my way home to get five more in case I don't find any flour for a while. I couldn't help but think about the organization called Free Pie or something: http://free-pie.org/
 I absolutely adore this idea. Maybe I could organize one in Greensboro. I guess all these crusts and frozen fruit would make it pretty simple to start from; maybe Ill go back tonight for the rest of the crusts.. Anyone wanna get together to bake pies and give em away somewhere?

In the news

I don't really watch TV, except for situations where there is one on in the same room.. I also don't read much.. I can, but unless I have some kind of assignment or special interest, I don't usually just pick up books and start reading them.. This means that I never see the news on TV, never really read news papers, check news blogs or anything like that. Whatever filters in to my life comes mostly from conversations with friends, overhearing stuff at work, or some discussion at school or something like that. A few days ago someone at work asked me what I think about what is happening in Haiti and I had no clue that there has been a catastrophic earthquake resulting in apocalyptic fight-to-the-death-for-a-morsel-of-food type scenario that is unfolding. Kind of like 9/11.. I was a freshman in high school when it happened, but since we didn't have TV at home I never really saw or heard exactly what happened. I knew there was an attack and planes in towers and shit, but I never saw images or read the stories about it. So, months later when I saw videos of the plane hitting the tower for the first time and people falling from the sky I sobbed.
I recently heard about the "NBC fiasco" which I had virtually no knowledge of. I heard someone at work talking about there being a time slot discrepancy for some show with someone, but thats all I knew. I became inquisitive, since everyone seems to be in such a huff about it and began asking questions. So, apparently Conan O'Brian is getting fired and given like 40 million dollars and his show is being given to Jay Leno or something like that... I don't understand why people are so upset about it. I couldn't care any less. It has no affect on mine or anyone elses present life or future whatsoever, unless you are related to one of the two or work for NBC I guess... If these are the things that common people consider important and pressing newsworthy issues, what issues are scientists concerned with?  What are the real problems that so many forces are trying to distract people from with frivolous, mindless crap that matters to no one.
Obviously, I should be in the know about the important things. It is an individuals responsibility to keep up with what's going on in the world, but it seems that the "important" things that are in the news are complete and total bull shit: "John and Kate are getting a divorce!" Who the hell are they?  "Michael Jackson died!" So... what? Everyone dies.. "Unauthorized Oprah biography coming in April" Are you kidding? Who the hell besides Oprah gives a rat's ass!? Lets talk about the poor and homeless people who are starving to death in America or the children in public schools whose families cant afford lunches and go hungry, while every one of the biggest grocery store corporations are destroying tons of perfectly good food every day ..to save money? For convenience? Lets do something that advances humanity, something that brings human life to a higher level of quality and efficiency instead of simmering in this cesspool, thinking that we're just fabulous creatures at the peak of existence.. There is so much work to be done.
Anyway.. I guess I should start making more of an effort to be aware of the real problems occurring in the world.

Good finds

As I was riding my bike around the neighborhood yesterday I came across two items that I had to come back for with the car. The first thing is a very large wooden crate.

It measures 41"x45" and the bottom is raised off the ground. It was used to hold a load of slate, which was used in building the giant new houses down the street that all popped up within the last year. When I saw it I immediately knew that I would take it home and make a compost pin out of it. It is the perfect size and can easily be changed to allow one side to open on a hinge when its time to turn or ready to use. Im very excited about this, as it will give me more motivation and make it easier to compost everything at home.

The second item that I found is a small child's bicycle.

I have actually been keeping my eye out for one for a while but kind of forgot about it over the winter. I'll use the fork and wheels to build a small trailer for my bike so I can finally emancipate myself from my car.. or at least on nice days.. I would really like to build a little single wheel trailer that I can load up with crates and take with me wherever I go. I am very excited about this too.
I bought a hiking backpack for like two dollars a few months ago at the Habitat for Humanity Re-store, one of the best places ever, and took out the frame so that it could serve as the base frame for my trailer.

 Unfortunately for me, as a sagittarian, I cant seem to finish an awesome project before another awesom-er project consumes me.. in fact, right now there is a half sewn apron hanging on the mannequin, tiny bike parts laying on the floor and several unframed pictures stacked up on the shelf.. But now that Ive got all the parts, I just have to put it all together. This will require some outside help since everything needs to be welded together and I don't know anything about welding, although like so many other things, it would be a hobby Id take up if I had the time and equipment.

Cheesus Christ!

This dump was like unwrapping layers of presents; produce and flowers on top, then boxes of crackers and dried fruit, then containers of cole slaw, potato salad and tuna salad, then layers of cheeses, ham, salamis and other deli meats and finally, plants! What fun!  

Well its all been tallied up and Ill be damned if I didn't find most of my wish list. I only went to one grocery store and a retail place. Heres what I brought home:

8oz deep fried cajun sliced turkey breast
2 1lb bags sliced brown sugar ham
3 10oz pkgs Sara Lee sliced deli meats
1lb pkg sliced honey ham
7 4oz pks sliced hard salami
3 pks Genoa salami
4 pks pepperoni
3 8oz pkgs sliced Muenster cheese
3 pks Colby Jack
6 pks Baby Swiss
6 pks Smoked Provolone
5 pks Aged Swiss
4 10oz containers snack mix
3 12oz containers dried fruit mix
4lb bag sugar
5lb bag red potatoes
1lb bag frozen gnocci
2lbs butter
2 pkgs wonton wraps
3 heads organic green leaf lettuce
2 heads organic red leaf lettuce
3 bunches organic spinach
2 boxes baby organic mixed greens and herbs
2 bell peppers
1 pear
1 grapefruit
1 cantiloupe
3lb bag clementines
2 bunches radishes 
1 organic cabbage
2 bunches celery
2 bags cipolline onions
8 white and yellow onions
1 cucumber
6oz pkg sliced portabella mushrooms
1 bunch green onions
1 box brussel sprouts
1qt veg oil blend
3 boxes Veggie Tales fruit snacks
64oz bottle mystery juice.. apple? 
1 Superfoods Naked smoothie
1.5l. bottle laundry detergent
box trash bags
2 spathiphyllum
1 other house plant I cant recall the name of
office chair
2 picture frames

None of the meat or cheese I looked at was expired yet.. Its too bad I didn't check till I got home; I left a whole lot behind as you can see in the pictures. While writing this, I considered going back to collect the rest to put in the freezer but decided against it, as I have filled most of the house with stuff already and I don't even eat much meat anyway.. So I thought about getting it to take to a shelter or something.. but then I remembered school started this week and I will never ever actually make it there to drop anything off.






So now lets take a look back at the list I made before going out tonight and see how it matches up with the one made of what I found.

Flour............................................no flour, but I found sugar!
Naked smoothie drinks.......................check! And its my favorite, next to mango that is.
Brie, parmesean or another nice cheese.....no brie or parmesean, but just about every other kind!
Butter..........................................check! They came in the most adorable little mini sticks too!
Cream or half and half.......................not this time..
Eggs............................................nope

baby organic spinach.........................organic spinach+organic baby greens=good enough

shallots.........................................2 bags of cipolline onions will do!
balsamic vinegar.............................. nope

Ginger..........................................nada

Garlic...........................................onions galore, but no fresh garlic


Earlier today I realized I would need trash bags soon, my sister asked me to look for plants for her new apt., Ive been needing a good office chair for a while and I was also thinking about frying some the wonton wraps I have to make chips earlier today, but they were all dried out.. now i've got lots of fresh ones!

Im still amazed by how much stuff there always is and that I can usually find whatever I feel like at the moment. Im certain that I could have found the rest of the item if I had gone to another store or two.. 
I have recently found some other freegan and dumpster diving blogs, so Im excited to read them and see what others' experiences are like. One really cool one I found is about a girl's adventures in LA. Her stories about scaling walls and climbing under fences to get to the goods makes me feel awfully vanilla.. Her adventures make mine sound like a walk through the park. on the sidewalk... You can read her stuff at http://funkypunkyg.blogspot.com/.

Wish Lists

Ive often talked about wish list items, items that I need or want and think about before going out. Well tonight I am going to make said list before going out and see what I come home with. I usually limit these mental lists to three items, but tonight I'm thinking big and want to find:

Flour
Naked smoothie drinks
Brie, parmesean or another nice cheese
Butter
Cream or half and half
Eggs
baby organic spinach
shallots
balsamic vinegar
Ginger
Garlic

Here goes..

Ham croissant with mango-apricot spread

Last night my best friends and I decided to watch a movie and hang out at my house all night. Before we watched settled down to watch "Dead Zone" starring Christopher Walkin, which was awful by the way, we decided to make a little snack. Laura and I had made a version of the ham croissants a few nights before so we decided to try it again, changing the things that we talked about last time. We sliced the croissants and put ham on each one.

 We decided to make a mango-apricot spread so I cut up some of the dried pineapple flavored mango slices I had and put them in a small sautee pan with some apricot preserves, water and sugar. I added some cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg and reduced it a bit. I put the mango-apricot spread on the bottom and put them in the oven to bake at a medium-low temp so that the ham would get hot and without burning the croissants.

While they baked I while I grated an apple and shredded some pepper jack cheese to top the sandwiches with. When the ham was ready I spread the apple and then cheese on each one and put it back in to broil for a minute longer.

Once the cheese had melted, they were ready.

The results were exceptional; Ive never had anything quite like them before, although a few things could still be improved the next time around..

How to clean cheese

My new camera has arrived so I thought Id do a step by step how-to guide to keeping firm cheeses clean and fresh so that they last a lot longer. Most people are very scared of "bad food" and think that the tiniest speck of mold on a block of cheese means its beginning to rot or something. The truth is that mold can be simply washed off of the cheese, leaving it free of anything gross. Take this example:

I found this cheese the other night. It was obviously thrown out because of the big patches of mold growing on it, even though the cheese is still good and fresh.

Upon opening the package, you can see that there was some pretty gnarly mold on the whole side of this block. This is a good example because it doesn't really matter how much mold there is, as long as what you are trying to save is more cheese than mold..

Just run it under some cool water and wash it with a clean cloth or brush. You should obviously not use hot water for this, as you will have a terrible mess to deal with afterwards.

Once it is satisfactorily clean, put it in a clean, dry towel and pat it dry. It is important to make sure it is good and dry before wrapping back up, or it will just get moldy again in a couple days.

Voila! A fresh, clean block of cheese. This pepper jack was also pretty moldy, so I tried washing it too, and it worked just as well. Wrap it up tightly in plastic wrap or keep it in a well fitting tupperware container; the less air its exposed to, the longer it will keep before getting moldy again or drying out.

I grated some of both cheeses on top of these Swedish baked potatoes. They were delicious. I found out this time that Yukon Gold potatoes is the way to go for this recipe, which I posted earlier.

Fruit n' Veges

Bro and I went out and and got a bunch of stuff the other night. I didnt write it all down but I took pictures. Among the items were:

parsnips
apples
carrots
greens
pears
oranges
limes
bananas
squash
tomatoes
red onions
potatoes
fresh herbs
vegan cheese
roses

Small Run

Last night I got my sister to go to a couple places with me. We didnt find a whole lot but what we found was good. We found two small tables with broken legs so I took the leg off one to fix the other. My sister found a new metal shower caddy for her new apartment.

2 boxes Woven Wheats... great with the chicken salad
2 potatoes
2 red potatoes
1 sweet potato
2 bags lettuce mix
1 caesar salad kit
1 bag broccoli and carrots
small table
metal shower caddy

Recipes galore

Ive been cooking lots of stuff that I have been meaning to post recipes for but I always seem to forget.. Well here's a recipe for some chicken salad I made today that turned out really well. I based it off of my moms recipe that she used in her restaurant and changed it to suit what I had in the fridge. The results were tasty!

Curried Ginger Chicken Salad

Chicken
mayonaise
diced celery
diced green onion
minced red onion
minced roasted garlic
minced garlic
relish
dried cranberries
soy sauce
curry powder
toasted sesame dressing
basil
cilantro
salt
pepper
soy sauce

I mixed approximately equal parts celery, onion, cranberries, and mayo with about 2 tbsp garlic and ginger, tsp herbs, soy sauce, sesame dressing and curry powder, and salt & pepper to taste. You can add more or less of what you like and change it to suit your taste. I served it on a toasted English muffin with organic spinach leaves for lunch.

Ive also been talking about baking a pie for days but haven't gotten around to it.. so tonight I whipped one up with some stuff that needed to be used while I made big pot of soup stock with all the veggies that needed to be used.

Strawberry Ginger Lime Pie

2c strawberries
2 segmented limes
1c sugar
2tbsp flour
1tsp vanilla extract
~1tbsp minced ginger
frozen pie crust

Mix up ingredients and pour in the pie crust. Bake according to directions on pie crust package. Dare I say, easy as pie.. or following directions. As you all may have gathered from previous posts, I prefer to make my own pie crust because its much tastier and really easy, but I didn't have any flour.. Ill keep an eye out at the dumps next time.

New camera!

Im really excited about the new camera that I ordered last week. Its a gift to my self for being awesome last year and fulling commitments that I made to my self. Its supposed to get here on Wednesday..  I know I mentioned I recently got a new camera, but it has proven that it can't keep up with my demands.. 

Its pretty nice and would be good for taking to a party or to bring along on a fun night out, but its not very durable and im always afraid of destroying it when I take it to the dumps with me. It has been dropped twice and has a small crack and a dent above the screen.. its made in China, so its not built for durability.. After considering my needs I decided on this one:

This one is pretty much indestructible. Water proof, drop proof, crush proof, freeze proof.. Just what I need. I got an extraordinary deal on mine too which makes it all more satisfying. I cant wait to test it out!

A great day

The next day was very full and productive. I got the wardrobe armoire that I had been keeping my eye on at the furniture consignment store, got it moved in, cleaned up and situated in my room. I went to work for a meeting and then came back home to get ready for the belated Christmas dinner. It was so much fun! All the food was delicious; it was great to attend a dinner party as a guest and not have to worry about cooking anything for a change! So we had good food and good wine with good friends. At the end of the evening, I was quite pleased with the day's accomplishments. To top it off, I decided to stop again at the near by grocery store. I haven't made a list, but here's most of what I found:

~70 various frozen Lean Cuisine and Stauffers frozen dinners
several organic potatoes
~15 limes
a few lemons
some tomatoes
lettuce
baby organic carrots with tdip
a few other miscellaneous veggies

Not a really long list, but a very large load. Since there's no room left in my fridge or freezer, I just left them in a box on the back porch. Its so damn cold that they'll be fine out there for a while, at least until it snows or rains again..
The other day I responded to an ad on craigslist from a woman asking for food. She told me about her five children and husband who recently lost his work, so I was obliged to offer her a big box of food. Unfortunately for both of us, she never responded the next day to set up a time to come get it.. Im not sure why she never made it or even responded, but it was kind of disappointing. I was excited about being able to help. So I invited my lovely neighbor over to do some shopping, who was very thankful and appreciative, although she brought something to my attention. When people are over at my house and I offer them food from my packed fridge and full table, they are timid to take what they want, afraid that they are taking all my food. I try to reassure them that I have a seemingly endless supply and will never run out, but they are still reluctant to take a lot of stuff. Something else for me to think about...

Dinner preparations

Yesterday one of my friends hosted a belated Christmas dinner to which I was invited along with several of her other friends. She called me the day before asking if she could come over to borrow a dish. Since she lives near one of the better grocery stores that I go to, I offered to bring the dish by her house and invited her to join me on my dive since she had previously shown a lot of interest in one day joining me. She accepted my offer, so later that night we went to several places for her first time dumpster diving. I kind of wanted to get it over with because it had started snowing earlier and had since started turning into rain. After we finished up at the grocery store, we went to a pharmacy but didn't find anything. We stopped at her house to unload the stuff and she convinced me to make another trip out to a different grocery store and pharmacy. She was pretty excited about how well it went and I had a lingering spark of adventure left over so it really didn't take that much convincing at all.. We were much more successful on our second run and were able to fill the trunk with lots of stuff from the pharmacy; stuff that would've been wasted if I hadn't salvaged it, as I am now starting to think of it. One of the dumpsters we came across was completely filled with plastic hangers. I took a few to hang in my new armoire. In the end, we got another huge load of stuff; lots of good stuff for the christmas dinner, too! I didn't count anything my friend kept, but here's what I ended up with:

4 boxes Cheeseits
12 boxes instant oatmeal
whole roast chicken
8pc fried chicken
2 8oz chicken alfredo pasta dishes
3 8oz boxes dried cranberries
1 bag turnip and mustard greens
2 heads romaine lettuce
1 head organic cauliflower
5 pre-made chef salad bowls
3 bell peppers
3 poblano peppers
2 jalapanos
2 cherry peppers
3 yellow squash
1 cucumber
4 potatoes
1 sweet potato
10 tomatoes
3 loaves Italian bread
1 bag sub rolls
2 boxes croissants
whole lemon pound cake
2 apple pies
35 bottles assorted flavors sparkling water
5 loaves honey wheat bread
2 loaves white bread
3 bags rolls
32oz jar grape jelly

Why?

Last night I had dinner with my friend who lives in Hawaii,where she goes to school and where I have applied to. I brought over a dumpstered brussel sprout casserole that my mother cooked and brought over to our house. We were talking about how recycling, reusing and composting is much more a part of the lifestyle on the islands than it is on the mainland, and it became clear when I stopped at the grocery store on the way home. Not-that-much to my surprise, I found several boxes of leftover holiday merchandise: wine gift bags, holiday paper plates, paper napkins, paper cups and plastic table cloths, all intact and pristine. I cant find any logical reason for these items to be thrown in the dumpster to be buried in a landfill that makes the least bit of sense at all to me. Why wouldn't the company want to keep it for next year or return it to the distributor for credit or even sell it for a reduced price.... The other night I found a really nice iron at a retail store. It was $80 new, but had been factory serviced and reduced to $29.99 but still, no one wanted to purchase it because it's not their idea of perfect, not acceptable, not valuable; so, although it works perfectly fine, it ended up in the dumpster.  It is beyond me why this is the decision that ends up getting made, to throw perfectly good merchandise away when there are so many much better alternative solutions. It vexes me completely and I cant stop thinking about it.
Besides the holiday merch, I fould lots of great stuff. Heres the list:

8 pks paper plates
13 pks paper napkins
2 sleeves paper cups
3 plastic party table cloths
~25 holiday wine gift bags w/ tissue paper
2 6.3oz blocks extra sharp cheddar
2 8oz blocks sharp cheddar
16pk cheese slice singles
16oz bin mexican cheese dip
5lb bag french fries
32oz bottle coffee creamer
1qt Simply Lemonade
1/2gal vanilla Almond Breeze
4 bags bagles
4 pkgs Toll House caramel filled cookies
1 mystery can... some vegetable  or soup?
2 14oz pkg extra firm tofu
2 8oz pkgs cubed extra firm tofu
3lb bag clementines
1 box organic baby spring mix
3pk organic baby carrots w/ ranch dip
3 bunches organic spinach
3 organic lemons, 2 regular
7 limes
1 white onion
1 sweet onion
2 yellow squash
3 potatoes
8 tomatoes
1 artichoke
~30 bottles flavored vitamin drink

Since I had all this on my mind, I was thrilled today to hear from a friend about an organization in the UK called Re-Plenish. They are a non profit group of volunteers who collect food from supermarkets that is still good but can't be sold and redistribute it to other groups and charities that provide food and meals for people. I was super excited to read all about it because it is very similar to a project that I have been brainstorming about for months. I hope to contact them and learn a little more about how they work and what other things they are involved in. You can learn all about them at http://www.re-plenish.org/
With all the depressing heaps of stuff that I've been finding lately, it's a relief to hear that people out there who are working toward solutions and trying to solve issues like excessive waste and hunger in their communities. It often seems that with my level of awareness comes the obligation to carry the burden of solving these problems and bringing them out in to the open where people can see it so they can talk about them, learn about them and understand them; not ignore them.

Another day, another dive

I got a call from my friends the other night asking if I wanted to go diving with them again. Since I'd hardly gotten out of bed all day, I thought it would be good to get out and do something. Im glad I did, because we recovered an insane amount of food again. I was quite excited about all the frozen berries and the yogurt. I can make lots of pies with the fruit and I enjoy yogurt in the mornings. When we got back to their place we sorted, washed and divided everything up. I only inventoried what I took home so we collected more than twice this list. Here's what I brought home:

3lbs. margerine
4 individual blueberry yogurt cups
32oz tub vanilla yogurt
1 bag cranberries
4 Jello mousse cups
1 bag frozen broccoli spears
 1 tub Ranch veggie dip
1 tub yogurt fruit dip
2 containers salsa
1 container french onion dip
8oz block sharp cheddar
8oz block European style butter
8oz pepper jack cheese
fresh ginger
8 potatoes
16oz bag parsnips
4 avocados
2 heads cauliflower
jar caesar dressing
Stauffers flatbread
Pilsbury xmas cookies
64oz bottle mystery juice.. maybe cranberry?
3lb bag clementines
4ct bag pita
3 bags dried mango/pineapple
1 butternut squash
frozen cheese pizza
3 bags Chiquita apple bites
2 loaves Natures Own bread
11-1lb bags assorted frozen berries
1 bag english muffins
bag BBQ buns
bag hot dog buns
2 bags hamburger buns

A friend of my brother's gave us their old refrigerator. Its much newer, bigger and nicer than our old one so its pretty exciting and its already packed full of new stuff from the past few nights.

Breaking in the new year

Last night I had a couple friends who had been traveling over for dinner. It was great to see them again and they had some wonderful dive stores from their travels. After dinner we decided to take a little trip to the dumps to see what we could find. We were pretty excited with our findings from the first stop so we decided to make a night out of it and check out a few other places too. In the spirit of a new year we decided to try a few new spots, and its a good thing we did; we found a couple great new spots! We went to grocery stores, pharmacies, the pet store and a couple retail stores. Petsmart has the only dumpsters I've ever encountered where the dumpsters are chained up and locked. If you want to get in them you have to climb up on top and get all the way in. I was appalled by how much food was in there. There were several large bags of dog and cat food, but each one appeared to have been ripped all the way open and poured out into the dumpster. This is most unfortunate because the county animal shelter has euthanization rate of nearly 50% and there are many other rescue centers and organizations that could make good use of the wasted pet food.
So far, this year seems to be starting off much better than the last.. At the end of the night we ended up with:

6 russet potatoes
6 red potatoes
4 sweet potatoes
2 organic cucumbers
6 assorted peppers
1 yellow bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
10 organic green bell peppers
6 jars Spanish olives
1 bag green apples
1 bag red apples
6 zucchini
4 red onions
4 yellow onions
3 white onions
3 boxes brussel sprouts
4 3pk. baby carrot w/ ranch dip
4 bunches green onions
1 bunch celery
8 tomatoes
3 bags rolls
9 pears
2 bags apple bites
2 heads romaine lettuce
3 yellow squash
2 bags raddishes
5 bags broccoli and carrots
6 cartons assorted mushrooms
head iceberg lettuce
organic pineapple
avocado
5 tangelos
2 grapefruit
3 oranges
8 ears corn
3 beets
6 12oz bottles milk
2 1/2gal. chocolate milk
whole Virgina ham
22 48oz bottles Sunny D
2 Naked drinks
2 cans orange shasta
2 dozen red roses

Round one

Round two.. Thats just the food..

2 mason jars with lids
pepper mill
tart pan
spring form baking pan
scrabble apple
stationery
garbage bag full of cards; thank you, birthday, christmas, hanukkah, new year, etc.
wine bottle outfit
scented candle
shinguard
ziplock bags
plastic food basket
3 phone chargers
2 phone cases
pocket guide to prescription drugs
Declaration of Independence and Constitution book
keychain laser pointer/LED flashight
2 packs energizer hearing aid batteries
~20 pairs reading glasses
3 scoop set
wooden spatula
steel dog food bowl
small fleece blanket
cat toy
remote control air plane
2 new toilet seats
throw pillow
fingernail clippers
gallon water jug
4 storage bins
computer parts

 

I sent my friends home with several bags full of stuff. Good thing, since they are broke from traveling and haven't found any work yet.. They said that in their travels on the west coast, dumpster diving was difficult because everyone has their turf and everything good gets gone real quick. I feel pretty fortunate to be able to pick from this tree that no one else seems to care about. I can pick all I need, whenever I need. Im excited to see how this year takes shape.