Ever pick through someone's weekly trash?

[4570Man]

I often just dump questionable material into the dumpsters of customers with their blessing. Small bags of kitchen garbage like foil and chip bags go into the recepticals at gas stations or downtown locations. I NEVER have regular garbage for p/u, just recyclables.

I know it's all about belief systems, but few things irritate me as much as not eating what's on your plate. I have good friends and was just horrified when she told me, "we don't do leftovers" and everything just goes in the garbage!

I save any leftovers fit for another meal. I feed my dog most of the second leftovers.

 

[ultrarunner]

My Dairy Farm Grandparents never had trash... none.

When my friends came to visit one summer... they couldn't believe there was no garbage can...

Being farmers... all the table scraps went to the pigs.. grandmother baked from scratch and made her own clothes... she bought staples like flour and sugar in bulk...

One summer the peach blight took it's toll... I brought with me a case of Del Monte cling peaches... my grandparents didn't own a can opener... used a bottle opener... they had never had anything from a can... meat and produce was all home grown... nice cold storage in the basement for smoked meats... plenty of fresh unpasteurized milk... Grandma was skeptical of anything from a can... but she really enjoyed those Cling Peaches... said they were almost as good as hers!

The big white and chrome Wedgwood stove had a wood burner on one side and electric on the other... they used wood... both for cooking and heating... so paper and scrap wood made kindling...

Even used a scythe around the farm house to mow with the grass going to the livestock...

I guess they were Green because it was all they knew... farming was organic before there was such a word... a farmer that didn't take care of the land was not much of a farm and forest stewardship was very important...

I'm glad I had a chance to experiences time there as a kid... didn't own a phone or TV... radio was a big deal and they had electricity... it was the only utility and a labor saver for moving hay and milking...

 

[Industrial Toys]

I often wondered, when watching movies set in earlier times, how they kept estate grounds grass manicured? Or did they?

 

[bcp]

Sheep.

Bruce

 

[teejk]

I know it's all about belief systems, but few things irritate me as much as not eating what's on your plate. I have good friends and was just horrified when she told me, "we don't do leftovers" and everything just goes in the garbage!

We knew people like that. Even the Thanksgiving left-overs went in the trash. Back when we didn't have much money to waste and we both worked full time we kept a crock pot on the counter and everything went in there. It might have started as chicken soup/stew but as the week progressed it might have morphed into chicken/pork and then maybe into chicken/pork/beef. Add a little more liquid or noodles or seasoning from time to time. Was nice to have a hot meal waiting at the end of a long work day especially in temperature like we have been seeing lately. That was back in the good old days when you could actually get a decent slow cooker that wasn't designed to over-cook your food (one of those nanny things).

 

[s219]

Jeez, we eat at least 50% leftovers here most of the time. Most of the time we just reheat, but my wife is really good about rearranging and augmenting. Soup is the main course one night and then a side the next night with grilled cheese. She'll do pulled pork BBQ in the crock pot one night, then the next day she'll bake it into pastry pockets for lunch. Or a big batch of chili may become burritos the next night. Never really gets boring. Being a dumb man, I can pretty much eat the same thing over and over, but my wife seems to like some amount of variety.

 

[goeduck]

Same here, why cook every night when you do not have to? An exception is often salad since it doesn’t keep well. My parents taught me not to waste food and I hold to that to this day. When you raise/grow your own food it hardly makes to throw it away. The same should go for those buying it. Why buy it just to toss it?

 

[Bird]

I can remember when lots of folks didn't buy dog food for their dogs. The dogs got plenty to eat with the table scraps. But if our dog only got table scraps, she's starve within a week.:laughing: I, too, am one of those who eats everything on my plate; just can't change the way I was raised, I guess. And leftovers get eaten, not thrown away.

 

[RobertN]

Around here, the dumps used to have attendants that pulled stuff out and set to the side. Next to the dump they had a outdoor store where they would sell that stuff. They had all kinds of cool stuff. That was in Roseville, Ca; they called it the "Berry Street Mall".

The Sacramento county dump had the same. The "store" was not on the same site though.

We have a terrific "attendant" at our extremely rural trash "transfer station". He keeps an eagle eye out for anything unloaded that might be of some value, and stacks them all neatly to the side for "shopping" by other citizens.

 

[Deere Dude]

I save any leftovers fit for another meal. I feed my dog most of the second leftovers.

I would never eat leftovers and didn't want to waste anything so I would eat till I bust. Then my wife thought I liked it that much so she would gradually start making more. I must have been at 95% body fat approx... That was before microwaves.

Since microwaves were invented I can deal with left overs. When grilling I make enough stuff for half a dozen meals of meat and reheat them. Maybe my taste buds are different but I can handle leftovers so the eating quantity went down. Now my wife makes a poy of whatever, counting on leftovers for a few days down the road.