[CesumPec]

My neighbor has a friend who works in some sort of canning operation. The company recently had an inspection and needed to clean up the warehouse. So my friend, who has about 12 swine, was able to pick up free other than his time and fuel, 2000 lbs of raw potatoes and another 1000 lbs of various raw veggies. The factory said they through away 20,000 lbs of potatoes the prior week. Arrghhhhh

As a penny pincher, I'm always interested in learning about how others have scored free hog chow. What is your best or most unusual find where did it come from, and how did you make the connection?

I have a friend who works in the kitchen of a retirement home. I trade her eggs for buckets of leftovers which my pigs and chix love.

 

[PF]

That's interesting. Did he just call to check?

 

[CesumPec]

don't know.

 

[superflydog]

I go to the local Winn Dixie and get all their throw away produce and breads, at times I've taken hundreds of pounds of food out several times a week


Sent from my iPhone using Pig Forum

 

[CesumPec]

My place is in a fairly rural zone and everyone has already hit up the Winn Dixie. One of the butchers has a home next door to me and he feeds his turks on WD produce. In a year when I'm n the farm full time, I hope to establish regular pickups with local restaurants.

 

[Tasso]

I give mine anything I can get my hands on. Have backed up to dumpsters and loaded the back of my truck with fruit and vegtables grocery stores had just thrown out. A big plus on my side is I am surrounded by the biggest rice producers in Louisiana and I get alot of rough rice from the mills for nothing. Also have a sweet potatoe farm ~20 miles from my house and when they cull out I usually can get the bad ones which they crate up and allocate to 2tons for $20 when they are in season which is in the sring and fall.

 

[CesumPec]

$20 for 2 tons is a suh-weet deal.

 

[BEverret]

Does anyone have a standing deal with a restaurant or something for scraps? It seems like that would be a good idea.

 

[CesumPec]

To be legal for resale, table scraps can't be fed unless they are boiled. Too much work. But if you can get left over unserved food, that works. In the book, The Good Pig: the extraordinary life of Christopher Hogwood, they get 5 gallon buckets of pancake batter, stewed tomatoes, and other items on a weekly basis from a local restaurant.

One of the things they learn the hard way is that while tomatoes are good for pigs, a 5 gal bucket of tomatoes fed all at once can kill a pig. I forget why. Christopher Hogwood lives but only because he is an 800 lb barrow, a smaller pig would most likely have died.

 

[PF]

What if you don't buy it? Can you get it then since the government should have limited control over a free interaction?

 

[CesumPec]

I worded that poorly. For pig meat to be legal for resale, if fed table scraps the scraps must be boiled.

I don't sell pigs yet, but I can tell you we do not boil table scraps. I think the rule is absurd. WIld pigs eat anything and everything. I spent summers on a pig farm and we fed scraps to market pigs. I think this law is more of a nanny state issue.

 

[Tasso]

What if you don't buy it? Can you get it then since the government should have limited control over a free interaction?

Nope. Its a shame, any grocery, school, or public eatery cannot legally give you the slop...I have tried...Only way to get it is after they throw it to the dump. Some kind of federal BS.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Pig Forum mobile app

 

[Andi]

We give ours extras from the garden plus bread from the bread store. (ten bucks per truck load)

 

[PF]

Nope. Its a shame, any grocery, school, or public eatery cannot legally give you the slop...I have tried...Only way to get it is after they throw it to the dump. Some kind of federal BS.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Pig Forum mobile app

That's crazy.

I saw Mike Rowe on dirty jobs went to a pig farm and the got the scraps form the hotels. I don't remember if it was boiled or not.

Doesn't that destroy the majority of the nutrients?

 

[JohnWalters]

My pigs get table scraps, but we don't produce that much.

I've never heard of the boiling. So if you don't take the pig meat to market I'm assuming there's no regulation?