The Find

Well, today was pretty much an errand day. Less exciting than previous days, thank goodness! I did some work out of the office this morning and then ran to the post office and into town to pick up a few things.

I stumbled upon a great find last week. I've been trying to incorporate more healthy, organic food in the family's diet, but it is so darned expensive. I spent 104.00 on some food last month that the kids ate in about 3 days. At that rate I'd spend over 1000 a month, I have been praying for ideas and thinking of some alternatives because I normally keep the budget at about 1/5 of that.

When I processed chickens for a neighbor several weeks ago she mentioned that the local grocery tosses a ton of produce and she picks it up for her chickens to help cut the cost of feeding them. She also metioned that a lot of it is still perfectly good. So, I decided to check with my local organic grocery and sure enough they said they pitch a bunch of stuff twice a week when the new produce arrives. The grocer told me I'd be amazed at what they toss and he would save it all out in a separate bag if I called ahead. So today I went to pick it up and I couldn't believe all the good fruits and veggies in there. I sorted it and gave the hens all the scrap stuff which was about 70% of it and washed the rest of the nicer things for us. A lot of it I couldn't see why they had tossed it except that it was in a package with one or two items that were not sellable. I also made a gallon of vegetable stock to put in the freezer for soup this winter. There were whole bunches of really nice lettuce, I guess they were too small to sell so they got tossed? In any event, I think it was a great find. I washed and sorted the lettuce, wish there was a way to preserve it as there was enough to fill a 5 gallon bucket. Guess we'll be eating salad for lunch & dinner. He told me to plan to come 2x a week and get stuff. He said it seems such a waste to just toss it, they are glad to give it away to someone. So, looks like the organic produce desire has been met. Hmmmmm.....maybe I need to stop at the local bank and see if they will save me a bag of some of their green stuff :)

I ran to Target to pick up a couple of things as well. They have printable coupons for buy one get one at the Starbucks inside. That's a hard one to pass up, especially since friend had given me a Target gift card. So, the girls and I treated ourselves. We had fun perusing the aisles. Usually I'm a get in and get out kind of person, the last time I just shopped there for nothing in particular was probably a year ago. But, I didn't find much in the way of bargains, so ya. Oh well, we still had a fun time.

The UPS guy stopped by the house to drop off a return shipment and the dog had him pinned in the truck. He stood inside the door and wouldn't come out. I let him know she is a pushover for a good doggie biscuit. Stan, the regular UPS guy brings her a treat, so I think that was all she was hoping for. Large brown truck = treat! But I admit, she can be intimidating to some one who doesn't know her.

On a sad note, the chicks are big enough that I started to let them out to roam around the place and I lost one to a hawk or fox or something while I was in town today. There was a small amount of feather on the ground so we did a head count and sure enough, one was awol! Darn it! Guess some critter was hoping to incorporate more healthy, organic food in his diet too.