On a whim, I decided to stop by the Trader Joe's and Food Lion dumpsters on a Friday back-to-back. I went later than the last time, since my run-in at Trader Joe's with the large, angry pit bull lady had kept me away for a while, leaving only the poorer quality of the Food Lion dumpster for the last month or so (which had NOT been cutting it).
Trader Joe's and Food Lion are on two completely different ends of the dumpster spectrum. Trader Joe's employees (sometimes) care, but their dumpster is immaculate and easy to sift through, with high-quality food. Food Lion doesn't even notice when I'm dumpstering in broad daylight, and when the employees do see me, they say nothing because they all aren't paid well enough to care. Unfortunately, the dumpster is a disaster: no bags, boxes of random gross butchered fat, it smells like death, and the produce is often very sad (on the shelf or off).
Regardless, the dumpster provides, so I can't really complain. I just have to be extra careful about food safety with stuff from the Food Lion dumpster. I ended up sharing my plunder with my friend Stephen, but here's what I came out with:
10/21/11- 3 large heads of broccoli
- 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese (incidentally, the expiration date was labeled Feb. 27th, 2012 and there was no visible tear in the packaging or quality of the cheese #ftw)
- 1 white onion
- 2 red onions
- 1 package whole wheat penne pasta
- 1 avocado
- 1 bunch celery
- 7 gala apples (get ready for fall - apples are SO prevalent in the dumpster as the season continues - expect some recipes to come!)
- 2 baking potatoes
- 4 small roma tomatoes
- 2 pkgs organic raspberries
- 2 bags organic baby spring greens mix
- 1 pear
- 1 red pepper
- 1 bag organic all-purpose flour
- 12 ciabbatini dinner rolls
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