What a Waste!

Once again a local grocery store has furnished my family with a good supply of fresh produce. As with the post I did a couple of weeks ago, this produce, which happens to be Organic green grapes, was just tossed out, still ice cold, in the unopened crates that it was shipped in. Sitting near the dumpster. Ridiculous! Wasteful, so wasteful when we have several soup kitchens and homeless shelters and food pantries that could use this stuff. Why don't they donate it? Money of course. It makes me sick. However, I am happy to take it and share it with friends and family. Though some of these have individual grapes that were turning brown, the majority of them are perfect. Organic grapes no less!!! Geez!

Freeganism feeds family of 5...and then some

OK, correct me if I am wrong....when I go to the Farmer's Market, or stop at one of the road side stands where the farmer has his pick up loaded with fresh corn on the cob, unhusked...this is what I would expect it to look like. Am I right? Do you all agree?


Then tell me why.....why.....why....the dumpster behind a local grocery store chain was loaded down with this particular corn. I mean enough to stock a big city soup kitchen on Thanksgiving day! This is disgusting...particularly so, because I know that this particular chain of stores buys locally grown produce from farmers right here in Tennessee! How would those farmers feel if they could see that all they labored for all summer was tossed into the trash? I wonder......


This is beautiful corn, sweet and fresh. It was a wonderful addition to our Lammas harvest feast on Monday that included beets and cucumber from our own garden and homemade harvest bread. Delicious!

I wish there was a way for us to share these windfalls of idiocy with more than just our friends. It seems to me that this grocery store and others could donate this stuff to said soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and food pantries. How often d those folks get fresh produce?

In any case, I am sure there will be much more waste in the next few weeks with the end of a season as well as a fiscal year. Next we can expect to have school supplies to donate to those in need, it is amazing what is tossed out and for what small reasons. Well, that is it for my soap box....today.

PSA: Do Not Try This At Home

OK, here is one very good reason not to make your own fireworks or smoke bombs in the kitchen. My dear hubby, in trying to make smoke bombs for our teenagers to shoot off on the fourth, cooks up a homemade recipe for smoke bombs on the kitchen stove. (Note: he has done this before with no mishap)

While said recipe is cooking at high heat, a chunk of molten brown sugar leaps from the pot and causes a flash explosion on my kitchen stove! It immediately went out, however, my hubby is very good at making smoke bombs so my entire two story house is filled with smoke!

(this photo shows what the smoke bombs do outside the house)

In the midst of running around, with a deafening smoke detector going off, getting fans, opening windows, removing pets from the house, and assuring the frantic neighbor that we are all ok, hubby says, "oh, by the way, it blew up in my face and I am burned."

Hubby has singed off eyebrow, eye lashes, one side of his head the hair is shorter, he has five small blisters already forming on his forearm, and also stepped on a molten piece of sugar that hit the floor and has this monster of a blister on the bottom of his foot! Ouch!!

Not only was my stove covered with black, charred blobs of brown sugar, but the ceiling has black spots on it, and the floor in front of my stove looks like this....

From the outside, this looks hysterically funny. And it was to us after the initial scare. He really could have been seriously injured. As it is he has had to construct a special shoe to be able to walk, that alone is funny to see. He has nearly no eyelash on the one eye, again funny to see. lol And it was Very painful the first day. He was very lucky and we are so glad that the pets or Sophie were not in the room. Thank Goddess for that.

Why........? Freeganism indeed!

This is from one store!!!! Can you believe the waste? Most everything was still within the expiration date or just past it.....however, they don't call them "non perishables" for nothing. Ridiculous! I will post a tally of what all was here once I have time to go through the FOUR boxes of food. This was the gourmet section of a local grocery store. The waste is disgusting.

Laundry detergent.......WTF?.......it doesn't expire!