I love your site and plan to make the pickled beet recipe. It sure looks yummy.

Paul

I have never gotten sick from any food I have found in the trash. Your nose and eyes are your best defense since you can see if something is not worth eating and you can also certainly give it a big old sniff test.

The best time to dumpster food is at night since there aren’t likely to be any managers around. And the folks taking out the trash could care less if you are going through the dumpster. Police and guards are a different situation. They can give you a ticket for trespassing, but you have to mouth off pretty good to get one of those. The two easiest excuses are that you are getting boxes for packing/moving or you are doing an art project. You’ll have to make up the art project depending on what you have in your hands at the time. I have only been hassled once in the past seven or eight years. I have only been caught physically in the dumpster twice, once when I was reading magazines at Barnes & Noble and once when Kristin and I were dumpstering candy behind a drug store.

You don’t need to live in a big city to find food in the trash. It is everywhere.

I also wondered how easy it is to rescue food in this way without getting caught by a disgruntled manager or a policeman?

I don’t even live in a big city. I’m just curious. But it’s something I’d be interested in trying if I thought it was worth it. :p