So, in a fit of staying up all night with two friends, Sean and Stephen, there was much dumpstering to be had!
Sean and Stephen came over after they had hit a Panera and a Dunkin' Donuts already, looking for some help with finding a spot to dumpster for groceries. At this point, it was already almost dawn, but I grabbed my head lamp anyhow.
We started by heading over to Trader Joe's. Much to our chagrin, the dumpster was completely empty (and I had learned a valuable lesson about my Trader Joe's trash pick-up time).
On the way back to my house is a Food Lion, which I had never dumpstered at before, so I figured we could give it a try in case the dumpsters were still full there.
AND OH BOY WERE THEY FULL!
It was a sea of bananas, boxes, and produce! I found a full box of meat and fish right off the bat, which was still cold, but I didn't want to try my luck on any of it. I think it still would have been PERFECT if we'd shown up closer to when they threw it out- another valuable lesson learned. The Trader Joe's in my town doesn't stock much meat, so I barely dumpster any there. It's exciting to have found a place that stocks more.
The quality of the produce wasn't as good as Trader Joe's, but the variety was pretty bangin'.
Sean and Stephen walked away with about a full grocery bag each of produce including spinach, potatoes, apples, etc. The list below is what I ended up with.
5/30/11 BOUNTY:
- 1 pkg shitake mushrooms (mostly bad, but I salvaged a few good ones)
- 1 pkg sliced baby portabella mushrooms
- 2 portabella mushroom tops
- 2 squash (unsure of the type - both pretty small)
- 1 Del Monte Vegetable Tray w/ dip (including broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, & celery)
- 1 bag cauliflower (not in the best shape, but not bad either)
- 1 bag collard greens
- 1 pkg romaine lettuce
- 2 bunches of bananas (all but 2 bananas frozen for smoothies)
- 3 oranges
- 3 apples
- 1 lime
I feel like we could have come away with more, but the dumpsters weren't very well organized - instead of the neat bags that Trader Joe's uses, it was kind of a mess. There was also a pretty large margin between the good and bad produce. I'll be curious to try out this new dumpster again closer to closing time so that I can get still-frozen meat. I'm reticent to dumpster at Food Lion regularly because they close at midnight. That means I'd have to purposely stay awake to dumpster, whereas Trader Joe's closes at 9 and I can go right away on my way home from work...I may have to make a point of staying awake for the possibility of meat, though!
Next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment