It’s been over three weeks since we last went dumpstering and though I had enough food to last a while, it was starting to get a little lacking in variety. My friend was too sick to go out, which saved him the disappointment of finding the dumpsters almost empty of food.

I’d been inside all day trying to write some pretty basic messageboard software, so I went out by myself, knowing I wouldn’t be able to take as much alone. But there wasn’t much to take; mostly used paper cups and wads of pallet wrap. I even carefully checked the boxes marked “BROKEN GLASS,” because we had once found one of those full of sealed bottles of kombucha mixed with glass fragments. Two other people had already picked through what was there and only appeared to have taken one or two things. From what was left behind, I managed to fill one bag with some nice things:

• A dozen strawberry cereal bars
• 1 lb of almond meal
• A bag of baby arugula (opened but full)
• A mostly full bag of mandarin oranges
• 2 blood oranges
• 3 eggs (I had 4, but one broke on the way home)
• A box of shelf-stable heavy whipping cream
• 1 burrata (a container of 2, with one missing)
• A container of avocado tzatziki sauce (opened)
• Small flour tortillas (opened but sealed)
• 3/4 of a box of cone coffee filters