An Accidental Food Freegan

There's an organic grocer in town that daily gives away bags of free vegetable & fruit trimmings, first-come first-served, from a bin out back. Ostensibly, these trimmings are meant for composting. I started picking up one or two bags during the once-a-week trip into town for supplementing our chicken, duck & goose feed. The birds have many likes (lettuces of all kinds, Lacinto kale, watermelon rinds, etc.), and some dislikes (curly kale, some cabbages, carrot peels). I set aside for compost the things they won't eat or aren't good for them, like raw onions, or things that would require too much processing to make chewable, such as broccoli stalks. These free trimmings are well worth the effort to sort and are a boon to the animal feed budget, not to mention the compost pile. The fact the majority of the trimmings are organic is a huge plus as well.

Not from the compost bag, but were leftover
from a recent recipe: Organic Meyer Lemon rinds
being made into limoncello, a lemon liquore. 

Many times I've looked at a bag's contents and thought "dang, that looks good enough for human consumption". Then I started reading "An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace" by Tamar Adler. In one part of the book, she talks about using parts of the vegetables most folks throw away, such as broccoli and cauliflower leaves and stalks. Radish greens. Heck, the castoff parts of almost all vegetables. Her book, and a recent gift from the produce guy, is making me eye all of our "compost" produce a little differently.

The other day, the produce guy was taking a break out back where the compost bag bin is located. I pulled up to load the back of the car, and he offered to help lift the bag (bless him and gratefully accepted, sometimes a bag can weight over 50 lbs). He then says "hey, you like bananas, right?" He grabs a box of slightly overripe bananas off the dock and puts it into my arms, telling me how people won't buy bananas once they start getting dark spots. I thank him profusely - while silently wondering what bleep I was gonna do with all those bananas - and put the case in the car. I gave away as many bunches as I could to people I ran across during the remainder of errand running - strangers and friends alike - then came home and started researching what to do with the half case of bananas still remaining. Goodness knows I wasn't gonna cook them all in one evening, and although I subsequently discovered our chickens also like bananas, they weren't gonna put a dent in them very quickly either. Found out what many folks already know: bananas can be frozen with no ill effects. There's now five gallon-sized zip-bags of sliced and whole peeled bananas in the deep freeze. Some will go into breads, some into smoothies, and some will end up as chicken treats.

Some beneficiaries of the grocery store's largesse.

A second trip into town this week, and stopped by the store once more. Besides a goodly bunch of lettuce (and the ubiquitous onion and carrot peels), there were also tied bunches of daikon and red radish tops, recently divested of their roots. Once home, I carefully washed the tops and ate a leaf of each. The daikon greens were mild and crunchy. The red radish had a slightly spicy bite, but still tasty. I gave a bunch of both to the geese to try, and unfortunately for me, they chomped down with relish. Next time, the birds & I will split the radish greens - I can see using these in a fresh salad, or lightly sauteed with some poached eggs on top. There were also a couple of bunches of spearmint - some bunches had a few wilted stems, probably from the bottoms not touching water in the produce storage case. Washed, trimmed up the ends and placed into a cup of water to rehydrate (just like reviving wilted cut flowers). Once it's obvious which leaves are still good to use, I'm thinking about chopping and freezing in ice cube trays to later put into iced tea.

More goodies in the bag: celery bottoms & leaves, which have been washed, peeled & frozen for soup stock. Habañero peppers that were just starting to spot - threw them into the compost bin a little too quickly, have since found out that chickens can eat hot peppers with none of the problems we mammals have, and are reputed to be a vermifuge to boot. Cabbage leaves, also washed and will be sauteed for dinner tonight. Broccoli and cauliflower stalks, which I didn't process this time, but for sure next time. One of Ms. Adler's suggestions for stalks are peeling & boiling until tender then, processing in a food grinder. Use the results like a tapenade on bread or stir into soup.

Experimenting with food "castoffs" - either from the grocery store giveaway, or from re-examining my own habitual shopping & cooking - is exciting, and will be a continuing adventure. I do promise, however, to Spouse, friends and family members that I will not feed them "found food" without prior notification and consent. Scout's honor.

[Related: the other week watched an interesting documentary entitled "Dive! Living Off America's Waste". You can view it online at Netflix. Will also make you look at food differently.]