Did some diving last night, been missing the free stuff! Grabbed all these things that looked like pulled bbq pork, turned out to be soy meat or something. I might eat crap if it's covered with barbecue sauce, so it should be good.

Also excited to try out a new bakery outlet store, our old one closed. This one's a little further away, but easily accessable. When i first drove up, some guys were coming out of the back of the neighboring store to leave, so I waited then drove around the block. When I came back, there was 1 car still there. I didn't know if someone else was about to come out, so I just peeked in and grabbed some hoagie buns off the top.

Fake meat bbq sandwiches! mmmmm...

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!

Dumpster-Diving 101: Where & when

There's some good books you can read on diving, most notably JOhn Hoffman's The Art & Science of Dumpster-Diving. A pretty entertaining read even if you're not interested in applying John's lifetime of knowledge, but you probably will be after reading it! I'd like to offer some basic, quick lessons I've learned so far. I'm still an amateur at this, hopefully to one day gain the rank of Master Diver, but I have learned a lot quickly.

Where: Well, depends on what you're looking for. For us, we like food & books (more on food saftey later). So we target local markets that don't have the big trash compactors that I don't care to try to get into. I think that might count as breaking & entering. So smaller chain stores, and health food stores often have regular dumpsters. But whatever you're interested in or like to shop, shop their dumpster! It's usually a good idea to scout your location during the day.

When: After store hours, preferably at night for me are the best times. You could get away with looking through a dumpster during daylight store hours, but you risk being hassled by employees or managers. If they see you, you risk having them lock the dumpster or something. My favorite place is next door to a bar, and often employees come out the back door & can see me. I think they called the cops on me, but the cop didn't care that I was lookin'. Still, I don't like the hassle risk factor. Sunday evening they're closed, so I pick at my leisure that day! Ideally, I would go out after midnight every time, but I do work a 9-5 job. Gotta sleep!

Last night was good (Sunday!) Got 3 half-gallons of milk, 1 chololate!, lotsa yogurt, but some turned out skunky, 4 boxes of donuts, a little ice cream, broccoli, a few bunches of bananas, a few dozen small quickly-ripening tomatoes that I made yummy sauce out of today! Nummy! 6 cases of discarded books, too. Some light reading!

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!

Last minute stuff

Why, why, why do I always wait until the last minute to get stuff done? Tomorrow I have to have a sign printed for the show on Sunday, have cards printed and cut, and get everything I need together. Also going to see Transformers with Sam! Can't wait.

Had quite a prosperous dive Thu. night! Fridge is full!
7 loaves of bread & hot dog buns
13 yogurt
2 coffee cream
4 tomatoes
3 jello cups
bottle steak sauce
1 small broccoli
1 cauliflower
4 corn
2 dz. eggs
cup of roasted peppers
Value- $40 ish
Time- 2 hours (did a lot of scouting)

If only I was allowed to bring onions in the house, it was onion genocide in one place! Oh, the onion rings I would have made!

Goodwill to all

Went diving last night, thought I made out great, but ended up being disappointing. Looked like a foreign grocery cleaned out their freezer, and I filled a box with still frozen meat & fish. Turned out the stuff was years old. Years, like 2-5. Someone call the health dept! Sometimes there's a reason things are thrown out. There was a package of Chicken wings from somewhere else only a few days expired, so we kept that. Sell-by dates don't mean the food has become instant death, just cook thoroughly. Not much good produce. Got a leaky bottle of cooking oil, a few things Melissa made me throw out: a few dented cans, a broken bag of sugar & flour. I guess every day won't be great finds. There was a good "mystery" can (no label). I guess it would be safer (and fun!) to stick with those.

Behind a Goodwill store is a trash dumpster filled with discarded things. Definitely not a donation dumpster. I made sure! There are lost of good & semi-good things in there I guess the store thinks they won't sell. Yard sale stock for us! I almost feel guilty because there's so little effort.
Rescued was:
A nice baby stroller
a computer that can probably go on ebay for parts.
baby mobile floor play thing
electric hedge trimmer
oil lamp (Melissa might want to keep)
Princess Barbie for Melina (looked like Sarah Furgeson doll-she got a bath)
electronics experiment toy for Sam.
a small gift basket of soap (keep!)

Getting ready for comic show on Sunday, my 1st one in a few years. I've learned you need to do more than sit there and hope people make eye contact with you. I started doing some sketches to sell cheaply that can work as promotional material and act as conversation starters. Artists that have familiar characters on display attract more customers to their table, and people standing in front of you instead of looking as they walk by from a safe distance on the other side of the aisle so they don't have to talk to you is a good thing.

Thanks to my friends from Crashland who are sending me great stuff to have on the table!

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!