My super-cheap raw food story! (So excited!!)

[green goddess]

So, I discovered this restaurant that I have ties to orders cases of broccoli, but uses only the crowns and throws away the stalks. I've started being able to take them, which means once a week or so I get a huge garbage-bag full of them, for free! (Last time I picked them up, I didn't have a car, so I had to walk back home with it, uphill, for 30 minutes... that was quite a work-out! [not to mention an interesting sight for passersby!])
Also, I've discovered this produce-based grocery store that specializes in local fare, and it often has clearances on slightly worse-for-wear apples and bananas, among other produce. So... I bought several bags of apples for 79 cents each bag, and I've been going to town making up apple-broccoli juice! Here's the breadown of today's juice:

-678 grams of broccoli (6 stalks)
-1249 grams of apples (8 apples, with small bruises cut off)

Made: 2.75 litres of juice (taking into account the ~750ml of water added due to juicing with the vitamix) for 79 cents!

Now, had I paid retail for this, considering broccoli / apples at, say, $1.50 / lb....

...doing a little metric conversion........ 1.5 lbs of broccoli...... plus 2.75 lbs of apples..... 4.25 lbs @ $1.50 / lb.....

This juice would have cost me $6.38! That's a savings of $5.59! Woo hoo, not too shabby!

And since I've been harvesting weeds for my smoothies, my banana smoothies are costing me also only 79 cents each, for two litres! Oh, I love a good deal!

So, for anyone feeling that a raw-food diet is too expensive, search out cheap (and free!) sources! Find a grocery store with a discount bin! Harvest some weeds! Even scope around, see if you can score a restaurant's unneeded produce!

[MysticTree]

There are lots of cheap and cheerful ways to eat raw and even raw nut butters work out quite well when you consider the cost over the amount of time a jar lasts.

[walnutty]

Awesome story! Thanks for sharing!

[Frugal Raw]

Excellent:)

[Living Food]

I wonder if you could try starting a juicing business...? If you could just find a few good sources for a wider variety of produce it would be quite possible. Think about it - raw food and juicing could use the publicity (every little bit helps), and the world could use some cheap sources of fresh juice. And, of course, it might give you a little extra money too.

[green goddess]

I wonder if you could try starting a juicing business...? If you could just find a few good sources for a wider variety of produce it would be quite possible. Think about it - raw food and juicing could use the publicity (every little bit helps), and the world could use some cheap sources of fresh juice. And, of course, it might give you a little extra money too.

I would love to do this! It's something I've been toying with for a while - starting a smoothie business, with juicing, of course. Thanks for giving me something to think about while I shuffle off to work....

[MysticTree]

Trouble is that common sense seems to be anathama to these big businesses. You are better trying small independent green grocers. You could offer to make smoothies which could be frozen and sold though the shop.

[The Sproutarian (Mr Raw)]

l have bought over 200 pounds weight in peas and paid little over $100 for it all. l get the HUGE delivery Friday. That will be enough to soak two cups of peas each night and grow a large tray of pea shoot greens to make a 200 - 250 ml green drink of the highest order. Then when l also drink 250 ml of sunflower green juice and 250 ml of chia grass juice and another 200 ml of wheatgrass jiuice, and another glass of sea weed and algae juices included, l am flying high (the main part of my diet). No wonder l don't feel the need to eat anymore, l am getting so many nutrients from those green drinks that it is incredible!!!

l might try and do an experiment and try living on nothing but green juice. Maybe.

[The Sproutarian (Mr Raw)]

l remember ringing up the farm warehouse in the 90's for blue boiling peas for sprouting and they asked me: "how much do you want for a sample, is 2 tonne enough"? l said " l am only a household" and they said "well, how about a tonne that we can leave on your driveway"? This was a free sample, but naturally l had to decline the offer.