Food poisoning!!

Just kidding! Yes, we do eat most of the food I bring home. In the dark, I grab what looks good, and we sort when I get home.

"But isn't that food diseased?"

No. Places throw stuff out when it hits the sell-by date, gets dirty or crunched, is discontinued, sometimes no discernable reason. I'm reminded of the Seinfeld episode where George ate the donut from the top of the trash. What was wrong with that dounut? Does moving it from the counter or refrigerator to the trash change the chemical composition of the food?

200 years ago, maybe even 100 years ago, we ate fruit that had imperfect spots, drank milk with no sell-by dates (they used a fancy system where they opened the container and smelled the milk), and ate meat that hadn't been in a constant refrigerated state.

So sarcastic rant aside, we test our food using our brains and senses. If it smells bad, away it goes. Many times fruit is past the freshest state, but still perfectly fine and safe to eat. Meat I bring home is still cold from the store, and if still in a sealed package, is cooked thoroughly. For example, I found a 5-pound tube of ground meat. There was a small break in the package, but the meat was still cold, so had just come from the meat case. We saved everything except the portion near the break in the package, and didn't die after eating it.

If there was a ridiculous amount of the same item in the trash that hadn't expired yet, that could be a suspect of tainted food. Often these scares aren't as serious as they're made out to be (bird flu, anyone? Swine flu?). So again, common sense, sound judgment.

I'm not an expert on food science. I just use common sense, and that's gotten us by so far.

Peace!

It's Thursday like a Friday

Hey! Show was pretty good Sunday, made about $24, talked to a lot of people, did a few sketches. I'll do some reviews of what I bought later.

Good dive the other day, found a 30-pound bag of dog food! Turns out it was senior dog food, so we were worried Sushi wouldn't like it (like she would notice). Turns out she gobbled it up, when she usually won't eat her regular food. Score! I'm not sure how much a big bag of food like that costs, I should go in the store & price it. I'm sure it was worth my whole 2 hours out. Also found a new favorite spot, just a block or 2 away from my #1 spot. A name-brand bakery thrift store was just filled with awesome! It was funny, there was vaseline or something along the rim of the dumpster to deter diving. I grabbed one of my trusty garbage bags and placed along the rim, and hopped right in. I'm off tomorrow, so I'll head back there tonight to get some goodies for the weekend.

Happy 4th!

New jobs, and comic show

Hello friends! Lately I've been preparing for a comic show in Akron, Ohio. June 28th. come by and say hey and get a high five! I've been practicing some sketches to do while there, check out the Hulk above. I'll also be selling some books from my buds at Crashland Studio. Can't wait!

I had decided to get a part-time job, seeing how the money situation was going to look soon. I put in 8 or so applications for easy things like pizza delivery, but who is the only place that calls me? You guessed it: McDonalds. I worked for McD's for 6 years after high school, 2 years as a manager, and swore never to go back. I usually don't even eat there. So I swallowed my pride, and worked there for 2 weeks before I quit! Not as easy as when I was a younger man.

Around the same time, we started getting interested in Freegans. Freeganism includes vegetarianism, living off the land, dumpster-diving, etc. Basically living an anti-consumerism lifestyle. I respect that. I like free stuff. As a kid we always picked through the trash, and always loved it! After reading more, I became more aware of the waste that we have in America. The average store throws out hundreds of pounds of usable and edible items that are at their "expiration date" (just a "better safe than sorry" date), simply unattractive to buyers, or slightly damaged, or even nothing wrong at all!

So I thought I'd try this out. I targeted one of my favorite bookstores, and found 100 one pot sample packs of coffee. good coffee, too! I couldn't believe it! I peeked in the neighbor's dumpster at work and found a microwave that looked brand-new. Are you kidding? It was missing the turntable plate, but you don't really need that. Turns out the thing is possessed or something, it beeps strangely occasionally, and we had to unplug it. Oh, well. It still cooks, someone might want it in a yard sale.

Encouraged by these great finds, we've gone out several nights, and found the following:
4 loaves of bread- there was lots more than we wanted in 1 find
2 kolochie (probably spelled that wrong) pastry loaf things
4 bananas
2 bunches of grapes
4 rolls
1 pack of dinner rolls
bag of apples
2 lemons
8 tomatoes
3 green peppers
2 dozen donuts (2 trips-there was more, don't take more than we'll use right away)
several boxes of books- only took 1
golf bag
bags of restaurant chips
3 bottles of dish soap- tops were cracked- messy but almost full
bottle of hazlenut creamer-goes good with my free coffee & donuts :9
a CD radio
2 board games
old records & direct TV reciever (thought these might have high value, but not really)

All the food we kept after inspection was mostly mixed with a few bad ones, lightly bruised, whatever. Perfectly edible. Meats I've stayed away from so far. Maybe winter diving would be safer for meat.

Being newbies, we did a lot of scouting to find out what's good, and what's not. Trial & error. I think the value of what we've found so far has been more than the time spent working a minimum-wage job. It's addicting, too. Even though it's not quite illegal, there's still the thrill of it. Plus I'm being green, saving the landfills, and providing for my family at the same time.

I'm going out tonight! I'll let you know what I find!