Food Sharing

[startswithhome]

Is there a thread for discussing food sharing with neighbors and family? When I went back to school I mentioned to people that I'd be happy to take their excess, and share mine in return.

Earlier this week (while I was hanging laundry on the apartment clothes lines) my neighbour asked if I wanted some extra veggies.
I got snap peas (kids ate immediately)
green beans (steamed with dinner)
and zucchini (which neighbor said "I don't really care for these cucumbers", so I was able to explain what they were)
I'm going to give her some of the chocolate zucchini muffins I made.

Yesterday went to my sister's and she gave me some CSA excess
kale (they don't like it, lentil soup time for us)
limes (will go to our soda stream bubbly water, most likely)
and zucchini. She's requested chocolate peanut butter zucchini bread in exchange.

[torbisen]

Good thinking. My neighbour some times gives me some. They are more wasters than us and dont care, but i always say yes. I like the principal of not wasting food. Both for economical and ecological reasons.

[Rezdent]

I don't recall seeing a thread specifically about building food webs, but it is fun, frugal and a great way to build relationships.

At one point, we had built a web that included two people who ran fruit stands, one person who worked in a nice bakery, a pig farmer, and we had eggs and chickens.  A typical weekend we would start with trading eggs for fruit/vegetables.  Then we'd hook up with the baker and trade eggs (or fruit, or veggies) for bread...circle back around to give bread to the first person...

It was great fun, and helped feed four children.  Now the kids are grown, so we don't do it much anymore but I hear that the web is still active.

[ketchup]

A coworker gave me some fresh basil from a neighbor of hers earlier this week.

A different coworker gave me 8oz of honey from her beekeeping class for helping unfuck her home computer.

Good stuff.  I need to pay it forward.

[Mtngrl]

Our next-door neighbor is a widow whose family gifts her with things like boxes of fruit. She can't eat a whole box, so she shares with us. I share our garden produce and some baked goods with her. The neighbors on the other side of her are second-home owners who visit only a few times a year. When they leave to return to their first home, they clean out the fridge and the widow-lady and I divide up whatever they don't want.

I also attend a group once a month that provides a continental breakfast before the meeting. There are usually leftovers anyone is free to take -- often I am the only one taking advantage of this offer, so I bring home bagels, pastries, sometimes juice and yogurt.

[sparkytheop]

I do this with my parents.  The other night I got a call to come pick up a pumpkin pie when I got off work; my dad didn't realize how much the recipe made, and ended up with two. 

I kill everything, so we just help my parents with their garden. 

One of us will buy something in bulk and split it with the other.  It all evens out in the end!

[Cranky]

My church has a swap table for summer produce.