Portland, Saturday June 20th

After exiting a movie I was walking by a grocery store and decided to see if their dumpster was easily accessible. To my surprise their compost dumpster was open and easy to get to. I didn't dig around too much but got two cantaloupes. On my way home from there I decided to stop at the Portland branch of my preferred spot in Eugene. Again their compost dumpster was unlocked and easily accessible. I don't know why Portland would be so much more forgiving than Eugene on this but from my one experience it does seem to be the case. Here's what I got:

Two Cantaloupe
One Banana
One Carrot
One Cucumber
A jar of mango butter
Ten brown eggs
One Eggplant
Two Oranges
Seven Apricots
Two big bunches of basil
Two packages of prosciutto (I'd usually leave that since I don't eat meat, but I was staying with a friend who does so I left it with her)
Three bunches of flowers (the orange ones for my baby)

Vegetable Broth and French Onion Soup

Grades were due yesterday, which means the quarter is over (mostly). We had a bunch of marginal vegetables sitting around the kitchen and in the fridge, so I decided to make a couple of batches of vegetable broth. Using potatoes, carrots, yellow bell peppers, rutabagas, broccoli, yellow and purple onions, scallions, (all dumpstered) some rosemary from a neighbors garden, salt and thyme, I ended up with a couple of gallons worth of broth. We also had a few more yellow onions sitting around so I used the broth and the yellow onions to make a vegan french onion soup, topped off by some dumpstered bread. Accompanying a salad made from completely dumpstered produce (red leaf lettuce, carrots, radishes) and toasted ciabatta bread (dumpstered) it was a fantastic meal.

Tuesday, June 14th

E and I went out for about two hours, hitting up seven different places. It seems to be getting significantly more difficult, even in just the last few weeks. More dumpsters are locked, people are working later, which all adds to the stress (and excitement) of it. Even so it wasn't a bad night.

A dozen white onions
7 apples (various varieties)
5 limes
1 bunch of radishes
1 jalapeno
1 tomatilla
1 bunch of kale
4 coconuts
1 ear of corn
7 tomatoes
1 stalk of rhubarb
1 package of pearl onions
8 button mushrooms
1 package of meunster cheese
box full of breads, cookies, buns, danishes

June 7th

They started locking my favorite dumpster, which I learned last night. I watched to see if they would unlock the dumpster prior to Sanipac showing up, but no luck. Time to develop a new plan. Stopped at a couple of new dumpsters but to little avail. Not a great night, but not a complete bust.

five yellow onions
four bunches of carrots
four bunches of green onions
bag full of kale
two zucchini
two yukon gold potatoes
a portobello mushroom
one small group of oyster mushrooms
one apple
three yellow bell peppers
two bunches of cilantro
one head of red leaf lettuce
one poblano pepper
three bunches of bananas
one poppy seed bagel
one avocado
one package of watermelon
one bunch of fennel
two bunches of bok choy

Thursday Jun 2nd

Went out on Tuesday night. Sanipac guy beat me to the best dumpster by 5 minutes. I forgot my light so I ended up feeling around in trash bags full of produce. Only ended up with a dozen or so potatoes and a lemon. On Thursday, after the bar, stopped by one dumpster and got several baguettes and a couple of ciabatta loaves. Then I went out by myself. It wasn't a great night but lots of onions for some reason. I donated another 20 pounds or so of food to Food Not Bombs on Friday.

Here was Thursday's take:

14 red and white onions
Two boxes of orange cherry tomatoes
A package of a green called Mache
Two lemons
One Lime
Three heads of red leaf lettuce
One Carrot
One 8oz Odwalla smoothie
Two packages of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes (which weren't very good)