Day 14 - Friends Who Forage

Once again, friends with hearts of gold step in and make things even better!   Every day I wake up feeling terrific and grateful to have so many wonderful people in my life.  I honestly feel in love with the world.

Nearly tossed into the dumpster of a local production outlet, a cache of produce was saved by a very kind and knowledgeable friend.  He was driving by when he saw a man throwing away perfectly good produce.  Surprised, he stopped and asked the man if he could have the food for the homeless, and now I have the produce in my kitchen...

Here is what he recovered:

Bananas, 2 Cantaloupe, Oranges

8 Eggplants, 2 Broccoli Crowns, Assorted Produce

4 Apple-Pears, 1 Yellow Pepper, 2 Tomatos, 1 Plum, 1 Kiwi, 1 Jalapeno Pepper

The following items were foraged with the help of previously mentioned friend.  Lavender for tea.  A tomatillo, some stalks of chard, dandelion greens, spearmint, chives, and lemon thyme.
 

Wild Plants

This amount of produce is more than I can consume before it spoils, so I dragged out the old dehydrator and put in slices of cantaloupe and apple pear.  As I went, I juiced the most aged fruit and parts of the fruit I couldn't dry, and created 1 Million Mile Juice.

Now my place smells like candy as this dries!

Next, I steamed the broccoli to stop the yellowing and stored it in the fridge for later.  The eggplants, yellow pepper, jalapeno, and some of the herbs went into this Fall Casserole.

I used the 3 most ripe bananas to make Banana Blackberry Muffins.

Before Baking.  See Recipe for 'After'.

You might think all of this preparation took forever.  It was actually only 2 hours for everything, including cooking/baking times.

But that is not all today had to offer!  From a very nice grocery store, a friend procured the following dry goods (and squash):

2 boxes of coucous, coffee grounds, tea, soy peanut butter, squash

Knowing how much I love coffee, she showed great ingenuity with collecting the coffee grinds.  You know how when you grind coffee at a store there is a little bit that falls into the tray below?  This is that coffee.  It is a blend put together by chance that can never be re-created.