I’ve been doing more “dumpster diving” since I moved into my new place. One of my room-mates is a master of the art and some of that has rubbed off onto me. He even dumpster dives meat, something I’m currently too squeamish to do. I’ve taken a leap of faith by eating garbage meat that he cooked up, though. I didn’t get food poisoning and the food was quite delicious!
I figured I’d switch things up a bit and show you the food I found today. All this came from a string of three groceries on a stretch of Parc in the Mile End.
I found a lot of bananas, many of which are fine for eating plain while others would be better for use in a banana bread. I find a lot of peppers in the trash too. Most of the time there’s a little soft spot on them, all you have to do is cut it out and the rest is good to go. Today though I actually found a few peppers that looked pretty much perfect.
I also saved a couple of melons, one of which I’ve already cracked (it tastes great!) and a bunch of strawberries. What probably happened with the strawberries is that a few went bad on the top so they just threw out the whole package. The same thing happens a lot with grapes and other types of berries.
On top of this I scavenged some potatoes, leafy greens (kale and rapini), fresh peppermint, a sweet potato and some cranberries. This will all go into the “community fridge” where various people will use it to create amazing food.
It’s obviously a shame that all of this was thrown out. Still, this is only a small bit of the food that is wasted every day. I won’t get too much into the numbers and details, however. If anyone is interested in learning more about “dumpster diving” and just how much food our society wastes I’d recommend watching “Dive!”. It’s a great film and you can check out the trailer here.
Tomorrow I’m likely going to head out to Ahuntsic, the part just North of Highway 40. I’ll let you know if I find anything good.
Sweet haul! Yummy. I see a sweet potato in the pic too; they’re a very healthy vegetable, as well.
Here are some more recipes for over-ripe bananas http://frugalliving.about.com/od/recipesbyingredient/tp/Uses_for_Overripe_Bananas.htm & http://www.cookinglight.com/food/in-season/go-bananas-00400000001694/
Wonderful food finds.In the winter,it is safer to dumpster dive because the cold weather outside helps preserve the food longer.
Please make TMR and Ahuntsic a regular weekly part of your garbage itinerary,along with Outremont,the Mile End and The Plateau.TMR is quite rich. Ahuntsic-Cartierville is so vast that it is more than 10 or 15 km from the Eastern tip of Ahuntsic at Boulevard St.Michel to the westernmost point in Cartierville.Different parts of Ahuntsic-Cartierville have garbage /pick-ups on different days because of its size.
Love the titles of your blog posts.They are very imaginatively chosen.
Your dumpster diving posts are very inspiring for students ,low-income people and struggling artists.While knickknacks can be dismissed as items of vanity,we all need to eat.A lot of people who do not get enough to eat are too proud to admit it and they hate soup kitchens and avoid food banks.If only they could be dumpster-diving like you,they might be more food- secure.But again while rescuing food from the dumpster,one does not want to get sick from salmonella.
You should visit your sister in Ville St.Laurent more often and while there,dumpster dive in Ville St.Laurent.Ville St.Laurent is the biggest borough in Montreal and is full of surprises.
Go visit the beautiful Bois -Franc region in St.Laurent and trash-pick there.
It’s it unbelievable the amount of food that goes to waste. My parents that grew up in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War would be appalled. What a shame, sometimes I buy groceries in not so well off neighborhoods and you can see people’s income just by looking at their baskets… Vegetables are usually not in the picture… they are too expensive even in places like SuperC… Not everybody can buy a broccoli at 1.99 $ never mind more fancy stuff… Food should not end in the dumpster, at the expense of sounding very religious (which I am not), to me food in the dumpster is the equivalent of a capital sin.
Which by the way, brings me back to yesterday and the man before me at one of Value Village places who found a pair of “brand new” FILA ladies skates MINT … I was taken at back thinking about the individual who bought the skates and threw them out … you have to have a lot of spare cash to do that… what an empty society we live in !
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