A couple of times a week the local grocery store gives The Farmy a bag of expired produce. 
I sit on one bucket surrounded by other empty buckets and set to work chopping and dividing up all the vegetables, potatoes and fruit.
I am immediately surrounded in a rabble of watchers, outright looters and opportunists, 
who inspect the proceedings, 
complain to each other about the portions,
do not wait patiently and fight over any windfalls. LouLou and Author whose name is Good Authority are always in the thick of it. 
Everyone loves their buckets of fresh food except Bobby Blanc who does not like celery – fancy having a fussy calf. I store a few buckets full in the house, so they do not freeze solid overnight, these are Daisy’s milking treats for a couple of days. Until The Matriarch comes out with another delivery.
Later, after getting the idea from my father, I made labneh into little balls, carefully packed them in jars, covered them with olive oil, added rosemary and garlic and lids and popped the jars into the fridge for next Friday. These will not be shared with the looters.
Good morning everyone. We are cooling down today. It is 16F (-8C) right now but will drop to 7F (-14C) overnight. And then colder again the next day. The cold itself is manageable but whether Daisy’s milking pump will work in the cold always foremost in my mind. It is interesting how carrying the pump to and fro from the barn has become normal. Between milkings, it lives on the floor in the dining room along with the pulsator and the hoses, in the warm and out of the way of general traffic. No-one even bats an eyelid anymore.
Have a wonderful day. Find lots of loveliness and kindness.
celi
Fantastic recycling of ‘beyond fresh’ produce via your Farmy animals back to the earth. Lovely pictures of everyone!
It’s beginning to get severely cold and very windy here too!
any cold that has the word severe in front of it fills me with dread.. add severe to cold to windy and it is looking grim.. I am sure you are dressing warm! c
Love that they share out the veggies for the farmy. We often get stale bread from the Baker which our chickens love dry or soaked. Stay warm!
I would love to have the bakery goods! That would fill them up on a chilly day.. c
One of the joys of Small Town Life…I have my doubts that my former boss would have allowed such a thing, even though we were a locally-owned grocery store. So sad…
Stay warm – that stuff is headed my way for Tuesday night. With a possiblr 6 inch snowfall tomorrow…
I used to have a restaurant too, we got huge buckets of food for the chickens from there, but they went out of business and i never found another restaurant that understood kerbside pickup!! .. c
My Weim also thinks he should have first dibs on buckets of food sent to me for my composting worms! Have a restful Sunday Celi.
Laura
Oh your worms must be well fed! I could do with a restful day actually, maybe that is what i will do.. c
You are so fortunate to have this available to you! Around here it is, “Against corporate policy to give away the trimmings and past prime veg.” When asked, “WHY?” The standard answer is that, “They don’t want to be sued if you eat it and get sick.” Ridiculous!
I have had a lovely visit on the Farmy this morning, but I think I should not wait so long between visits. I am certain that I have overstayed my welcome, and filled your notifications box to over full with clicking the like button and my comments. I will try to be better about coming more often.
You could never overstay your welcome.. it is always lovely to see you. I just cannot bear the amount of food that is dumped just because of fear. The supermarkets won’t even give away old buckets for the same reason.. it makes no sense at all. we are lucky that the little grocers are so cool.. c
I am surprised that the piggies aren’t all around you when you divvie up the goodies… lovely post and photos…
The pigs were in their pen, waiting, it would have been bedlam otherwise.. theya re not good at sharing! c
What a score! Happy Sunday on the Farmy:)
I do hope you are having a lovely sunday too! c
Great pictures and funny! That labneh looks very good too
I’ve just cycled to the farmers’ market in the snow. Martin (the farmer) drives all the way from Kent, so going to buy some vegetables is the least I can do. It did look great – all the vegetables had a blanket of snow.
That would have been surreal, snow falling on the market… and cycling out into it must have been literally breathtaking..I love hearing about your bicycle journeys in london.. morning mad c
Our market didn’t arrive yesterday- icy fruit and veg lying about all morning are not good sellers but I bet you could use them up. The bakers here charge for bags of chicken-feed-stale bread.
Please, what are labneh?
Labneh is strained yoghurt, very well drained with a little salt added. yum! c
I noticed the dogs weren’t about when you divvy up the veggies. They must be holding out for something better!
Ton spent the whole time inching his frisbee through the door (he is not allowed to play in the barn) and I missed two fantastic shots of Author reaching up and wacking his face for getting in the way! c
I had to google labneh, how fascinating, Celi! I love your audience,and shared it today with Maddie who loves all things Farmy. It’s a lovely thought, everyone gathering for The Big Feed.
Fresh food at this time of year is a life saver.. I love it when they all get something green to eat.. morning kate.. do you have snow too?.. c
We do. We are all of a pother. How will we ever get to work in the morning?
out you go with your shovel!! c
I used to collect kitchen scraps.. for our pet rabbits and guinea pigs. I imagine you’d need massive buckets for your hungry lot! Have a wonderful day!!
My kids behave the same way when we bring a bag of loot in from the farmers’ market or the local bakery. I DO feed them, really I do! But there is something about the excitement of fresh treats that makes all of us a little wiggly and impatient
that has to give you pleasure to watch them enjoying their treats………
Okay…I need to know…what is labneh and how does one make it and eat it?
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
Make some yoghurt, strain it for about 24 hours, add a little salt and whip it up! Let it sit for a day or so in a jar until it dries out a tiny bit then roll and into the jars.. Or add chopped onion and chopped olives or dates and dried apricots and eat with crackers. Labneh. Like cream cheese but faster.. c
Oh, thank so very much…now off to the kitchen….
Excellent photos and I love that the grocers work as part of your. immunity which is the only real way to go natural.
Too bad the carnivore cats are out of the loop!
They like to lick the melon rinds though. who knows why!! c
Early Sunday morning I read your post aloud to The Good Husband, I love being read to aloud, and I assume everyone else does (not always).
Brilliant to have the greens that the grocery would throw away. Have a happy Sunday, and keep warm my dear dear Celi. V.
I like it when the garden (or the barn, as the case may be) enters the house. We bought in a few citrus trees for the garden a few weeks back, but the temperatures dipped below freezing right then, so we had all the citrus trees in our little house with us. The weather warmed up after a week or so, and the trees are in the garden now.
the house must have smelled divine for that wee while though! I love the scent of citrus.. c
That’s wonderful and reassuring that the produce goes to a good place and not to landfill. I wonder if this is a shining example rather than the norm?
a shining example by the sounds of it! And we are grateful.. c
Lovely pictures today. I especially like the one where the kitties are whispering to each other. I had to look “labneh” up to see what it was. Sounds delicious! Looks so pretty in your jar too. Would make great gifts to give away during the holidays.
No wonder your farmy brood looks so healthy with all that extra riches available: I honestly don’t think you can expect them to stand politely in a Q for the goodies
! The pusses look delightful!! You have made the labneh into bocconcini – have never thought of doing that tho’ I do make it and also buy a lot of buffalo bocconcini [b mozarella!] to boot: another thing learned at the farmy 
!
I love it with the mozzarella though, but i am not very good at making it.. too many steps i think or maybe not enough practice.. c
I love labne…must try making it one day soon. Helsinki was minus 25 the day I arrived, so it looks quite warm where you are.
That’s great they’ll save the produce for you. What a blessing–for you and all your buddies. Enjoyed seeing those kittens, they look like partners in crime.
NO time to write a comment on the kitties and an’ all, just bustling off to make some labneh!!!
As always, I find lovely and kind right here in your blog. How wonderful that you get this produce from the local grocer. How did this happen that you became the recipient? I think it’s grand not to waste.
Yay! The chickens got the bell peppers. Good for them.
What a great arrangement to have with your grocer! We waste so much food and any way to save it from going to a dumpster is all right by me. While my guinea pig was alive, I had the reverse system here. He & Lucy will only eat the freshest of vegetables. Once something was too old for them, I used the remainder in my salads, soups, or whatever. You just don’t waste food! Mom taught me well.
Stay warm tomorrow!
Smiling at today’s post. All those hungry mouths to feed! I think its funny that Bobby turns his nose up at the celery. As for the pump, it is funny how we can adapt to anything. At least you know there will be an end to it when the better weather arrives. All worth it for the wonderful food Daisy provides for the farm. Wow! Labneh! (I confess I had to look up exactly what it was) Omigod, that looks delicious! I am experiencing true envy looking at that lovely jar of what I thought was mozzarella balls! Are they similar in taste? Texture?
I’m always so happy when a grocer is willing to share the remains of produce that would otherwise be thrown away. I spend quite a pretty penny on produce for one bunny and one large tortoise, so I can imagine how welcome all donations must be! Your little hungry crowd is obviously very grateful, too!
I can imagine the excitement all round when the food arrives. I’ve never heard of labneh; it sounds very exotic.
It is very nice from the grocery giving you the waste, I love the pictures from the little friends, they are so cute! Have a great week!