Freegan news clip

Here is a clip that my friend sent me of freeganism in New York. Its from a few years ago, but I think it does a good job of putting everything in a nutshell.
http://current.com/items/76320542_eat-free-4-ever.htm

Friday evenings

I've found that Friday nights are usually pretty good. I guess stores clear out older inventory at the end of the week before the weekend starts. I went out diving last Friday with Laura and we got lots of good produce and some other really cool random stuff from the giant new dollar store. Since I had an accomplice this time I made her be the photographer. As you can see, the notion of dumpster diving meaning taking expired or half eaten food from filthy dumpsters with flies and muck is completely false. It just means taking the boxes of good stuff out of the dumpster..
 It had been about a week since I had gone diving so it was really fun and exciting.

3 bags romaine lettuce heads
5 bags organic baby carrots
5 squash
3 zucchini
4 carrots
1 cucumber
17 tomatoes
4 red onions
2 yellow onions
5 chiles
2 jalapanoes
6 naval oranges
4 bell peppers
3 kiwis
2 lemons
8oz pkg baby portabella mushrooms
7 assorted apples
pear
honeydew melon
24oz cheddar cheese
pkg frozen cookie dough
2 loaves sourdough
2 baguettes
bag mini bagels
3 loaves sandwich bread
4 jello cups
6 yogurt cups
2 Corona Lights
2 tubes biscuit dough
6pk yobaby yogurt
5lb bag sugar
bag teddy grahams
6 cases Gerber baby food
can diced potatoes

3 air horns
3D glasses
gift wrapping paper
birthday gift bag
box 13gallon trash can liners
whoppie cushion
jumbo calculator
children's books
valentines day socks

I was surprised to find so much baby food thrown away at the new dollar store, just because a couple of the individual little jars broke and had gotten on the other jars. This will be one of my best new spots; there was tons of stuff in there!
I made some more tomato sauce with all the roma tomatoes and saved the rest for making tomat. I was glad to find so much yogurt and fruit to eat for lunch at school.. Im starting to get tired of all those uncrustable PB&J's...

Hello, World!

Dear World,
Since I got the flag counter widget, I have realized that there are a lot more people out there reading this than I ever thought. Its amazing to me that anyone in the world can read this and Im finding out that they are. I decided a blog would at least be some way of making this information available to those who seek it.. When I realized the scale of things and saw how much senseless waste is occurring every day I had a lot of guilt for being so naive..ignorant of what was really going on. Im so glad that there are so many concerned people out there! It may seem like a stretch, but since I got the flag counter, its made me feel more connected to humanity; its comforting to know that there are people all over the world thinking about problems I blog about.
Im always interested in learning about what people are doing in other cities around the world to find solutions to these problems. If you have stories about your experiences, news in your community that you'd like to share or a link to your site, i'd love to hear them, especially if you are outside the US!
I want to thank you; thank you all as individuals-thank you for thinking and for caring enough to seek out this information.. not enough people in the world care about anything that goes on outside their individual perception of reality..
Love and Peace to all
Michael

Results

Well I dont think I found anything on last night's list, but I did find tons of great stuff. I found a care package at the pharmacy with all sorts of goodies and lots of stuff at the grocery store. Im glad I decided to go because tonight while I was at work it began to snow.
 again.
 uuuuggh!!!
Im so sick of this weather! I cant wait for the eternal tropical weather and growing season in Hilo.. Never again will I have to trudge through the slush with chapped and cracking lips; numb toes wrapped in cold, wet boots, eyes burning in the frigid wind.. No longer will I battle each morning, attempting to coax myself out of bed, motivating myself with promises of hot coffee and a warm shower just make it to the end of the freezing hallway...
Anyway..
Im glad I went last night. Even better, Im fairly certain that my shift for tomorrow will be canceled, as the company has postponed the event I'm scheduled to work the previous two weeks in a row due to the weather. This means Ill have all day long to sleep in, take my time getting the day started, clean the house, cook and prepare for Sunday's potluck. I just hope that the crappy weather doesn't deter people from coming.. Ive been looking forward to having another feast, like those in the days of Paisley St.. Especially after all the sweet stuff I found. Here is what was being thrown away last night:

an entire case of bananas
10lb bag yukon gold potatoes
3 boxes organic baby spinach
2 onions
2 bell peppers
2 tomatoes
6 cans whole tomatoes
4 packages shiitake mushrooms
bag of red grapes
pear
papaya
2 carambola-star fruit
6 organic zucchini
artichoke
40 assorted apples
3 chiles
5 carrots
2 bottles Gatorade
box Multi grain cheerios
lots of oranges and tangerines
yellow kalanchoe

Im gonna give my mom most of the apples and bananas to make apple sauce and banana bread.. Mmmm... There are some good things about your mother being a chef! Ill get some fresh eggs from my friend who works at a local farm and make Tomat on Sunday. Celery, chicken and grapes, ingredients I've found lately, are three important components of my mothers famous curried chicken salad.. I remember it was always the most popular thing at all of her restaurants over the years. My friends have missed it lately since it doesn't get made too often these days; perhaps Ill make some tomorrow..
As for the care package, it had some good things in it too. Its been a while since I found one at that store, so I was quite pleased to be the recipient of the stuff they were throwing away.

Container of powder Similac
disinfectant cleaning wipes.. haha..
weekly pill organizer
flashlight
bottle Nyquil cough/cold syrup
Burt's Bees sunscreen
bottle Bactine
lots of expired tubes of  expensive lip balm
2 packages Olay face cream
cold/hot pack
dental guard
monostat
Brittney Spears body wash and lotion
Witmans singing V-Day chocolates
Vday lollipop
3-D Crayola coloring stuff.. sweet!
black hair piece
LED night light
bottle liquid dish detergent

My mom knows people who she gives stuff like the similac, and Ill find people who can use some of the other stuff. Ill need to find a sweetie to give the chocolates to, though..

Test

Ok, Im gonna try this again. I'm gonna go to the dumps tonight to see what I can find for the first meeting of the newly founded Greensboro Potluck Club on Sunday. There are a few things I've been needing for a while, so I'm gonna make a list.

flour
cream or half and half
coffee
parsley or cilantro
ginger
fruit for pies
popcorn kernels
granola bars, snacks or something for lunch at school
nuts
dried herbs or spices
Naked mango tango smoothie

Okay, maybe Im getting carried away.. lets see what I come back with..

First Time

On Sunday a friend invited me to a benefit dinner for a Hatian organization at a place called The Hive. I have heard a lot about The Hive but had only been on a couple occasions. It is where Food Not Bombs is run out of, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to check it out and meet some new people, and I did. One girl I met is in my meet up group, so it was good to actually meet her for the first time. After dinner there was live music and everyone just hung out and talked about stuff. When we finished I dropped of my friend and since I had spent most of the evening talking about it, I decided to check out the dumps on my way home. I recently cleaned out the refrigerator and got rid of all the old stuff which turned out to be most of everything in there.. so there was plenty of room for all the fresh stuff I brought home.
I found:
2 bunches of celery
2 bags of Florida tangerines
bag of clementines
2 bags of oranges
4 bell peppers
tomato
kiwi
red onion
jar of baby dill pickles
10lb bag white potatoes
2 bags bagles
block of muenster cheese
3 packages fresh herbs
cauliflower
bag of frozen fries
big ole spare ribs

It seemed like I hadn't gone alone in a while and I was already pumped from a lovely evening with my friend, so I was really having a good time when I got in and started finding stuff! I was excited about the ribs, although I probably wont end up eating(much of)them... Some of the citrus was bad as you can see, but the rest are still good. I think Ill juice them all.

More snow

The weather has been so miserable lately. School got canceled three days this week because of the snow and ice everywhere.. We don't get a whole lot of snow here so every year whenever it snows a little, no one knows how to deal with it and everyone freaks out. Since its cold and wet all the time these days I haven't had the slightest desire to go out and dig in any dumpsters. The last couple days were a bit nicer with some sun to melt the snow and warm things up a bit, so yesterday I scheduled a meet up to get some food before another round of snow, sleet and rain predicted for the weekend hit us again. I went to three stores with two other people and we were able to find quite a bit before a wintry mix began to precipitate. I brought them back home to select what they wanted and I ended up with:

8 bags assorted lettuce
4 bags assorted rolls
1 loaf french bread
1 box croissants
5 packages organic firm tofu
3 bell peppers
tomato
bag of broccoli
cabbage
clementines
limes
12" cake
peanut butter crackers

I let them keep the three 8oz blocks of cheese because I've still got a crate full of many kinds of sliced cheese in the fridge. 

In other news, I got a really cool new gadget on my side bar. Its a counter that shows the country where someone who looks at the page is from. It can also generate statistics and graphs about how many people from certain countries look at it and stuff like that. I thought it was pretty cool because now I can see what countries people are in who are looking at my blog. I was surprised to get 26 page views from 6 countries while I was messing around with it for a few hours this afternoon, before I reset it to show the number of visitors from all countries. Its good to know that people all over the world can and are accessing my blog and that the reality of our wastefulness is getting some exposure. You can get a counter for your page by clicking the link on the bottom of my counter.

Today I also started a new meetup group. Its called the Triad Free Pie Group, inspired by something I have mentioned before: free-pie.org  While doing a bit of digging for information about the organization I found that it has sort of morphed in to a sort of community center similar to one I have longed to open for a while now. You can find more information about it at pielab.org.  The strange part about it all is that its located in Greensboro!... Greensboro, Alabama, that is.. Maybe one day there will be one in Greensboro, NC. Anyway, I'm really excited about getting some members together to talk about organizing a free pie day some time soon! Ill have to let you, my lovely readers, know how our first meeting in two weeks goes.
Oh! How could I forget the most important and exciting bit of 'other news'?!
I've been accepted to the University of Hawai'i at Hilo!!!!
I have been working toward this goal for quite a long time and am very excited to be able to start making concrete plans for moving there at the end of June or July. I am still not exactly sure how or when I will get there, but I can now start thinking about it as a reality instead of a possibility. I'm considering dumpster diving across our great nation in my little car to visit a few people and see a few places along the way to Washington before I make my final departure to Hawai'i, but its all up in the air for now.. I've got to stay focused on my school work and saving as much money as possible for now. Anyone have advice on making a move like this or anything that you think may help? Id surely appreciate any and all help sorting out what I ought to do to make this very, very big transition as smooth as possible.

What to do..? Cook!

I am quite all right with being snowed in. Im definitely a homebody when Im not out exploring the campus and surrounding neighborhoods or going out somewhere with friends. The snow storm provided a good opportunity for me to get settled in and crank out some recipes Ive been meaning to create for several days now. Laura and Erin came over for the evening and we decided to make some dinner with all the fresh stuff I brought home the other night. Here is what we ended up with.

Guacamole!

I adore guacamole. Chips, salsa and guac are all I need to live on.. We made this delicious guac with:

3 organic avocados

diced red onion

diced tomato

cumin

garlic

lime juice

cilantro

s+p

This is the recipe I got from my friend's mother who is from Texas, so its pretty tasty. You can put corn and other stuff in it, depending on what you like.

Potato Cauliflower Souffle

potatoes

cauliflower 

salt

pepper

butter

evaporated milk

ground cloves

grated baby swiss cheese

egg replacer

For the topping we used:

toasted sliced almonds

butter

brown sugar 

grated baby swiss cheese

a little flour, I think.. 

This lovely creation was inspired by my mothers delicious sweet potato souffle, which made the cut in to her cook book, and also due to Laura's suggestion to turn what started as a potato-cauliflower mash in to a souffle. I didnt have any eggs so I used a powdered egg replacer instead, which worked better than I thought it would. It rose nicely, was not too dense like mashed potatoes and was delicious when hot out of the oven! I  was pretty impressed with ourselves this time; this recipe, once refined and reproducible, will get its own card in my recipe box.. This means a lot, because I hate using recipes! A dish must be very tasty for me to go through the trouble of recording how it was made to taste a particular way.. I prefer to throw tasty things together and assume it will have a tasty result than follow the rules of a recipe! I keep telling everyone that this is why I won't make a good chemist.. 

The third thing we came up with was supposed to be a Thai curried butternut squash soup.. I just baked the squash with some butter, black truffle oil, salt and pepper till it was soft, mashed it with evaporated milk and more butter and added some basil, curry powder, grated fresh ginger, garlic and a couple other spices that seemed good at the time. I dont have a blender, so I used the hand mixer to make it more like a puree. It turned out more like a thick sauce or paste, but it was delicious served over the saffron rice we cooked with it! I think it would have been much better with a fresher squash and if I had a blender..

The last thing we made is not something we made up, but its a personal discovery. Snow + flavored coffee creamer = ice cream! This was made with a large bottle of English toffee international delight coffee creamer, but most of it ended up melting because we were all so full.

More randomness

I was dropping my friend off yesterday afternoon after having been snowed in the previous evening,  when we came across a big pile of stuff at the corner outside the entrance to her apartment complex. After I found the suitcase the other day she had mentioned that she needed one, so when we saw a little black suitcase on top of matching end tables, we pulled over and got out to investigate.
We guessed that the stuff had just been put out since it wasn't covered in the aforementioned 7" of snow.. The suitcase is in excellent condition and the perfect size for Erin; inside were more treasures: a pair of black leather cowboy boots and three other pairs of size 12 mens shoes. Not an hour before I had made a comment about how badly in need of a new pair of shoes I am and alluded to the possibility of going shoe shopping, a once every-other-year kind of event for me; however, I didn't entertain the idea long, thinking of how the snow would affect what would otherwise be a simple errand.. Ever since I found that pair of ladies boots last summer at the dorm dumps Ive been wanting a pair of my own(mens cowboy boots), although they're slightly large and I haven't decided if I want to keep them for good; after all, they could easily fetch a price to pay for my chemistry book or biology lab manual, both of which ive been putting off buying in hopes of acquiring one for free or at a reduced price.. and now that we're entering the third week of school.......
In addition to the suitcase of shoes, we found a small boom box and a flashlight. inside the end tables. I would have taken the tables too, but I have nowhere to put them.. Thinking back, I should have taken them.. they could have hung out in the living room until someone on craigslist wanted to pay $10 for them.. We'll call this a lesson learned.

Oh, how I do love random finds! To think that this would have just sat beside the road or been picked up by someone else if I had decided to stay in the house for the third day in a row.. Another lesson learned: people still throw stuff away when it snows. Its also good to get out and about every now and then..