I eat a hearty, healthy vegan diet every day and I don’t spend a cent. All my food comes from the trash. I feel amazing.
On this glorious day I woke up and I ate four pieces of fruit
- an orange
- an apple
- a banana
- a pomegranate
I washed that down with a mug of strong coffee. I love to eat fruit in the morning as the raw, sweet fibrous food breaks down quickly in my stomach. I have plenty of energy to start the day without being weighed down by a lot of heavy stuff digesting in my belly.
All the fruit had been found, by me, during one of my (almost daily) dumpster diving sessions. For those of you that don’t know, dumpster diving is the practice of re-cycling items (usually food) that one finds in the dumpster.
I have a network of 7-10 different locations near where I live that I check. They are mostly trash containers near fruit and vegetable shops, also one supermarket and a bakery.
I collect food not just for myself, but for a communal kitchen, where it is shared with 15-25 people. It’s one of the ways that I serve my community. Often I cook gigantic meals for everyone but today I just made this glorious meal for myself:
An onion, a zucchini, a red pepper, a green pepper, some cherry tomatoes, and two avocados. All freshly harvested from today’s dumpster dive mission and 100% free!
I have to spend some time washing and cutting everything properly. It can be pretty time consuming, but I’m all about the Slow Food vibe! I’m pretty selective, cutting away any bad bits. I don’t use any fruit or veg that doesn’t meet my standards. With so much abundance I have the privilege to choose only the best produce. The red pepper looked really funny after I had finished chopping off any mushy parts.
I got the onion, peppers, and zucchini ready and put it on the stove.
Now for the tomatoes! I love the word tomatoes. It’s such a cute word with the toes at the end. I also love eating tomatoes even though they are related to the belladonna deadly nightshade family of plants and some raw vegan aficionados swear that they are toxic and don’t eat them but I am Always very Happy when I find them in the trash. Because I live in Spain I find some lovely ones too!
Notice the compost pile has some more tomato in it... Some that I found which didn’t pass the quality control test. They were too mushy. Oh well!
It all started cooking together wonderfully and I added some salt and oil and a couple cloves of garlic too.
Unfortunately of the two avocados only one was salvageable. Soon I was ready for dinner with a liberal pour of olive oil on top.
The amount of food that is wasted very day in the developed world is astronomical. I am able to serve the planet, my community, and myself by saving a small part of all that precious food. As you can see, it’s a very healthy, hearty way to live and it’s 100% free!