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....

[Raw Angel Mom]

Love that, this is amazing.

Thank you for sharing!

[Hurraw]

I was going to share too. I get my nuts exclusively at the local Flea Market. They are raw and I'm paying less than 1/2 of what I would at my nearest raw market (Mother's). I buy my nuts there every weekend.

[green goddess]

It's so exciting when we can get good food for really cheap, isn't it? Like, there's a sale at the shoe store? Meh. Half-price bananas? Aww yeah!

And tonight I managed to collect some tomato and carrot tops 'n' tails, along with more broccoli and lots o' lettuce. I'm really getting a taste for green-leaf lettuce in my smoothies, now, and the leaves are nice and crispy for tearing into my fruit salads. And I'll start harvesting my kale, too... but I think I'll make kale chips out of that.

[Dirkg]

On a tv show I saw that supermarkets waste a lot of produce every day, since people only want to buy good looking perfectly shaped produce, so anything else is simply garbage. They don't even try to recycle it. I've been thinking of somehow getting that, and also maybe giving it to homeless shelters etc if they will accept it. Anyone done something like this?I also feel we waste so much everyday, just in how people eat their vegetables and fruit, throwing away so much that is good. e.g. stalks, skins, seeds. Doesn't need to be raw, they can cook it if they want.

[Raw Angel Mom]

It's so exciting when we can get good food for really cheap, isn't it? Like, there's a sale at the shoe store? Meh. Half-price bananas? Aww yeah!

And tonight I managed to collect some tomato and carrot tops 'n' tails, along with more broccoli and lots o' lettuce. I'm really getting a taste for green-leaf lettuce in my smoothies, now, and the leaves are nice and crispy for tearing into my fruit salads. And I'll start harvesting my kale, too... but I think I'll make kale chips out of that.

I am started to look into this more. Before, i wanted to encourage my grocer and help our area to have more organic food as possible. Now it is available in most store in my area. I feel now, that i have done my share and it is time to look for more bargain so i can use the money more wisely. One thing that is absolutely free and pack with nutrient is wild edible weed, lol.... yes, you heard me.

Anyway, i love your creative, you have done a great job!

[green goddess]

On a tv show I saw that supermarkets waste a lot of produce every day, since people only want to buy good looking perfectly shaped produce, so anything else is simply garbage. They don't even try to recycle it. I've been thinking of somehow getting that, and also maybe giving it to homeless shelters etc if they will accept it. Anyone done something like this?I also feel we waste so much everyday, just in how people eat their vegetables and fruit, throwing away so much that is good. e.g. stalks, skins, seeds. Doesn't need to be raw, they can cook it if they want.

What grocery stores do makes me sad. Why do we need to have 'perfect' produce? People are conditioned to accept only a limited standard when it comes to food, which is one reason mass-produced packaged food (including fast food) is so popular to SADists - it's always the same. Every particular type of 'food' is identical from one package to the next, and people tend to like consistency.

Well, I say, bring on the abnormalities! I like finding strawberries that have grown into weird shapes, and bell peppers with odd bulges on them (you know how when sometimes bell peppers can grow another baby pepper inside of it? That's cool!) Scabs on apples? No biggie! And organic apples are much more attractive to me than resin-/wax-coated shiny conventional apples, too - preservatives just aren't attractive.

I remember last summer I was in the produce section of the grocery store, and a big honeydew melon spontaneously fell onto the floor. The impact gave it a minor crack in the skin, and a worker promptly took it to throw away. I (half jokingly) asked if I could have it, or buy it at a discount - no. Company policy. Bottom line is, what a waste of food. I understand stores wouldn't want people to start purposely harming food in order to get it free (and I'm sure there are some who would abuse that), but still, such a waste.

Maybe as a rawbie, one of the 'highest place' friends we can have is the manager of a grocery store - be able to score 'unusable' produce! I can imagine taking this stuff, juicing it, and selling it to the public at a reasonable price, and even giving a percentage of the sales to the store in compensation! That would be awesome, and a very good use of food that would otherwise end up unfulfilled in the dumpster.

[green goddess]

I am started to look into this more. Before, i wanted to encourage my grocer and help our area to have more organic food as possible. Now it is available in most store in my area. I feel now, that i have done my share and it is time to look for more bargain so i can use the money more wisely. One thing that is absolutely free and pack with nutrient is wild edible weed, lol.... yes, you heard me.

Anyway, i love your creative, you have done a great job!

I absolutely agree with you about the edible weeds! I have been harvesting more than I can even use, but I'm happy thinking about the awesome nutrition I'm getting from it all. Wish there was some easy way of finding out the nutrition of weeds, as I'm curious; it'd be interesting comparing alfalfa or lambsquarters to, say, kale or spinach!

And well done on getting more organic produce in your grocery store!

[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.