[Sca-cooks] Steak (was Big Eggs)

[Laura C. Minnick]

Edouard de Bruyerecourt wrote:

> One of my former jobs in the modern world was at a zoo. Once a day, we
> would drive into town and pick up cases of donated produce from grocery
> stores, mostly buised, blemished and past-date stuff. Examples would be
> bananas that were perfectly ripe _today_, a perfect apple except for
> that dime sized bruise on one side, etc. All wholesome food except for
> one little bit one could cut out. Problem is, nobody is going to buy it
> from a store, so it would be thrown out anyway. Half when to supplement
> the elephant diet and half of this when to the clinic for primate,
> avian, and ungulate animals in the village area, but some of the rangers
> would gather around the truck to glean off some stuff for their animals
> (some primate were out in the main areas). Just about every zookeeper
> has a mentality of not feeding anything to his/her charges that he/she
> wouldn't eat themself. Primate and elephant keepers especially would
> nibble a bite or two out of the diets before they were delivered. Then
> there was the gleaning out of the truck, occasionally snagging a nice
> apple or banana and eating all but the bad part.

Heh... that reminds me of when I was a kid- we lived on a farm for about
four years, and the owner did a similar thing- drove in to a grocery in
town and picked up the discarded produce for the hogs they kept. Most of
the neighborhood would walk down to the hog pen when the truck came in,
and as the store was well know for their pickiness with produce, we'd
pick out the stuff that was still good, just had a nick or whatever. We
ate very well, at least produce wise, when we did that. And teh pigs
didn't know any better.

What was funny though, was my youngest brother. As far as he knew
everyone did this- and one day in Sunday School, they taught the story
of the Prodigal Son, and how he was so down and out that he had to eat
the slop he fed to the pigs. Well, Josh didn't see what was so bad about
that, and said so! Which meant that my mother got pulled aside when she
came to pick him up, and had to try to explain...

Hmm... we _had_ to keep all the artichokes- couldn't give them to the
pigs... yumm...

'Lainie