Waste, dumpster diving, composting and the color orange

I abhor waste. 

I feel shame every time I pull a vegetable out of my crisper that has tipped beyond the edge of just being trimmed down to now it must be tossed. 

I feel shame not having a yard in which I could have a compost pile or bin. 

I feel helpless when I see situations like I saw last night. 

While driving home after picking out this couch from Habitat for Humanity's ReStore, we passed Potter's Pantry. This pantry serves my neighbors and at one time, my family. I'm not ashamed to say it. There are times when a hand out is a hand up not to be hidden, lied about, or embarrassed by. But what I saw made me feel a little angry, a little self-righteous, a whole lot determined.

My family was slightly stunned when I suddenly turned the car around and pulled into the drive near the pantry, popped open the trunk door and proceeded to dumpster dive what turned out to be approximately 144 pounds of carrots out of one of their garbage cans. Carrots that were just beginning to rot. My husband was perplexed. What the hell is Annie doing piling rotting carrots in the back of the car? He of course leapt out and helped me pile them in, but I can only imagine what he thought I was up to. I volunteered to take them to the Michigan & Riley Farmer Pirate's compost pile, where months before they had received pallet upon pallet of slightly frozen rotting carrots from the Food Bank of WNY, and broke them down for their garden.

Samantha and I - Green Nerd Power!

My eldest daughter and I drove them over to the farm and stacked them next to the last two bags of wood shavings Bob had donated last weekend with the intention of breaking them down during the next work day on that farm. The super sweet smell of carrots lingered in the car during the drive home. Samantha turned to me with her stunning smile and said,

"Go Green Nerd Team!"

Fist Bump!

Kapow!

Over the last few months I've been running into all kinds of orange things. This year's color is supposedly orange. Do you know anything about the associations linked with the color orange? I knew a few but I didn't know how many there were till I looked them up last night.

In color therapy and healing orange is used for energising and revitalizing. It acts as a pick me up and aids recuperation after a bout of illness. For mental and emotional ailments orange is used to aid depressive states, melancholy and grief. Aspects associated with this color are career success, creativity, motivation and inspiration. Using orange for clothing, decorating your home or just enjoying this color within nature will help you embrace and explore new and exciting things in your life. Orange is thought to be incredibly sociable and you should wear something in this color when wanting to meet new people and expand your circle of friends. If you are craving a need for some excitement or freedom to pursue new ideas then include more of the color orange into your life. Choosing orange as a favourite color indicates that you are a fun person, young at heart and very adaptable. You could be in need of some fun, joy and laughter right now! Orange is a very joyous and vibrant color. It is said to free and release emotions and it is a great anti-depressant and will lift your spirits. Creativity and optimism are key words for this choice of color.

These are things I'm looking for in my life, or have been surrounding myself with since January. And in particular carrots and oranges and sweet peppers. Eat the rainbow - be the rainbow - sound like crazy rainbow man...I know how this can all roll down hill for me. "Oh she was such a nice lady until she got on that orange kick and started advocating dumpster diving!" 

Eat It or Give It Away or Compost It!

But seriously, perhaps I can preempt that line of thinking by saying, "Does that need to go in the garbage? Is there any way that can be repurposed?" Go Green Nerd Team!