Surviving Salvaged Food: You Won't Believe What It Looks Like! 

You are one of the few homestead preppers that reaches out to your fellow citizens!! Too many others are all about being an individualistic mindset that FEARS EVERYONE ELSE!! Long live Tessie & her family!!

There is a grocery store near me that has what they call “ugly produce” it’s all the fruits and vegetables that are not so pretty but just fine to eat and they cost a fraction of the “pretty produce.” It’s a great way to save money.❤️

I love all your ideas. My Father was involved with the church pantry for years. We picked up food from Hannaford, and Panera with him until He was 92 years old. Blessing others with a big heart. ❤️

My state doesn’t offer a program like this, but I really appreciate that the food doesn’t end up in the garbage. I feel like we, as Americans, tend to waste a lot. Good job!

Dear Tessie, I’ve heard you say numerous times that you’re just a simple woman. You’re not simple at all, you’re fabulous!! Thank you for sharing your great tips.

What an awesome opportunity! For years, I volunteered for a local CSA. For two hours each week, I sat at the designated place where members picked up their weekly baskets of food. In return, any food that was left over was mine to take. It was a HUGE help for our family for many years.

5lbs of Yukon Gold potatoes at my local Kroger today costs almost $6.00! I about fainted! I have learned so much from you about saving food. Thank you! God bless, dearheart.

I also use salvage food I just wish there was more of it in my area . Some months my grocery bill is only $150 for 3 of us . It's a great help . We are able to use our grocery money that we would have spent to keep up with dental visits, medical bills and sometimes it has helped with preventative car maintenance.

Great video Tessie! It's great you save as much food as you can. I don't waste anything , An elderly German lady worked for my mother's restaurant many years ago and she had been in a camp during the war, She said "Food is gold" and to never waste it. I have always remembered this. God bless you 🙏.

I wish my town had something like this I don't care what people say I'll be eating while they are complaining lol at least if the you and your family will be ok for a long time I would love a pantry like yours it's a big blessing Tessie thank you for sharing much love and hugs and prayers ❤️💗🙏

Another two thumbs up, Tessie! 👍👍 Love your tips and ideas, Blessings! Brenda in Arizona

I am glad you take the leftover food. I often watch dumpster diving videos on RU-vid and it never fails to shock me how much perfectly good food goes to waste in this nation. Stores throw away whole boxes of undamaged can goods and other foods which are not expired. While I would never take meat or eggs thrown away in the dumpster, I have seen people find fruit and vegetables that are in good condition, as well as cases of unopened water! Unbelievable! Thanks for another interesting video! Take care and God bless you always my sister!

Blessings Tessie! I sure wish we had something like this around in my state. I make too much, but don't make enough; seems that even my parents were caught in the middle too. I'm so glad that you have access to this wonderful program as well as those you serve! I love that you' tell people to be careful of doubtful food (no matter where it comes from) and that you reuse the glass jars. Never do I toss a jar! Blessings to all 🥰

I was born and raised in York PA. That’s a great program. Thank you for being a part of it and for saving as much food as you can. Blessed be Tessie

Blessings all around. I found a local grocery store that gives me its produce they pull for my bunnies. People only want to buy the best looking produce. They call me to pick up. I get 3 to 5 boxes every 7 to 10 days. Most times it brings me to tears. What my bunnies can eat I feed them. The remainder I cull through and wash a second time, freeze, dehydrate or can. I give a lot away to family and neighbors.There is so much food that would otherwise be going in the dumpster I am greatly blessed

I wish we had that in Kentucky!!! Hundreds could benefit from that awesome service!!! 🙌🏻🦋🙌🏻

I've been involved in similar food give-away operations in this area. I have always observed that people do not go hungry in this country for lack of food. Rather, hunger is because of rules and regulations and because of poor management. Crazy amounts of food are thrown out every day!

This is exactly how I’ve been stocking my pantry for the last few yrs. Restaurant kits are the best- we separate and preserve it!

I just recently started getting the free food from one of the Churches that has been set up to distribute the food here in TN. We go to one church and drive up get a number then at 12 noon they send us down the road to another church where the pallets of food are set up. Open our trunks and they fill it with food. Out of room they will put it in back seat or car or hand it to you. You don't have to get out of car other than to open your trunk. They give you a lot. most fruits will go bad in a few days so make sure you freeze, dehydrate or can.

Nice haul. Great stocking ideas. Beautiful jars. 💚🌞

It makes me happy to watch you doing these frugal projects, you seem to enjoy them so much. You remind me of myself years ago. I don’t have the energy or drive now!

Oh how I love learning the old ways from you Tessie. It’s a lost art to be a true homemaker. I wish I had learned these things when I was young, but I guess it’s better late than never.

Tessie this was very enlightening. Especially the info on keeping potatoes. I take the sprouted ones and grow them in containers on my deck. God bless you and keep you and your family safe.

What a great bunch of frugal and creative ideas, Tessie! I know I've said it before, but you are amazing when it comes to your homestead being thrifty and yet charming and pretty. As for the eternal nay-sayers, I'm glad that you addressed the issue of the shaming that seems to be a part of their DNA. Their mission in life seems to be to try to make people feel bad about themselves and they have amazing creativity when it comes to finding ways to do that. If they don't criticize someone's appearance, they'll make it about the way she manages her house, or spends her money. They'll critique her spouse and/or children, her religion, her cooking, you name it. There's no end to it. Anyone would start to believe that they actually would prefer it if the pigs got the leftover food, as long as it wasn't the video creator! Madness! They should stop and think. When you save food from being thrown out, you are freeing up cash in your budget that eventually goes for other things (and that means it goes back into circulation in the economy). If you and Chevy Man purchase a building for a shop/garage to be placed on your homestead, the people who designed, built, painted and delivered it are able to keep working. If you purchase a new (to you) car, the people at the dealership earn a paycheck. When you pay a hospital bill. the health care workers get to stay employed and people can get health care. And so it goes, on and one! 🙂 I think when you address the naysayers, you help to get rid of the shame that some others are trying to put on the shoulders of everyone who makes use of food distribution services. What you're saying is -- in effect -- "We're all in this together." It's not the food distributors against the people who need food -- one group feeling superior and the other group feeling embarrassed. It's everyone together trying to cope with a very challenging economy

I wish we had a program like that. I think it is awesome even the pigs are happy! Have a great evening everyone!

We go gleaning in the fields a few times a year during the harvest season. We can and eat everything we glean and choose our pumpkins for the season as well. We get nutritious foods while exercising/working for our food at the same time. I just canned Pickles and Green beans recently that we harvested from the fields. I love dehydrating onions and herbs/spices. They are ready whenever you need them.

You are blessed to be able to get food whete you work. I could certainly benefit from such a program. It's getting harder to make ends meet. On SS and wanted to have a small garden this year, but health problems kept me from even having a couple of tomato plants. But I'm feeling a bit better now, so I'm asking God to give me the health to have a garden next spring. Enjoy watching you do your to preserve food. Blessings to you and yours.

Tessie, You are a master at salvaging food it's good you and others can get food and preserve it, like how you decorated the jar lids you gave me an idea now :-) Love you my sister:-) God Bless you and Ken :-)

I love the decorated jars! It looks like you had a good variety of free food this week. Thank you for the video. God Bless!

Tessie!!!! I love LOVE all that you're doing. your home is amazing, the jars and how you decorated them is beautiful. I would be honored to have you as my neighbor. Learning from the best. I enjoy all those things. YOU are rich beyond measure and gifted too. loved your mini dishwasher. 😃. thank you so much for sharing all the goodness and PS - your pantry is fabulous. take care 🥰

Tessie that's wonderful. Great what we can make of the food others don't want.

You are amazing hun So proud to see a young person as you take on such old money saving techniques

For the last several weeks someone who has access to food a grocery store would be discarding has been putting it out in front of a local organization. I check for it each day & have been blessed with a huge amount of viable produce. Some of what I've brought home hasn't been viable, but most of it has been good & I have even been blessed with some stuff that I was able to freeze for later. So much healthy food that I wouldn't have had that would have beem thrown out. There were two bags of peeled garlic one day, I went through, took what was good & froze them. I'll have garlic for a while. I can't stand food waste & I'm glad for you to be able to have this food rather than it going in the trash. What a blessing.

Great video Tessie! Love what you did with the jars. Thank you for sharing!

I love what you did with the jars . Tessie you are a very smart cookie .

I love what you are doing with the lids!

I love those decorated jars, Tessie! What a neat idea!

Thanks Tessie. I watched your video on how to recan tomatoes from cans. I had no idea I could do that. Thank you.

Thank you for this great video, Tessie. You share so much educational and inspirational information that we can all learn from.

That's some good items for your Pantry's Tessie. So glad you were able to salvage that. The way you are storing it all is absolutely beautiful too. Have a blessed day friend. Leaving Florida this Saturday morning and heading to Lancaster to the Garden Spot to visit Hubby's Mom.

I always love these videos, its so creative ways you preserve what they have..the food truck is a real blessing

Wow!!!! So very excited to have found you Tessie- so so so valuable all your knowledge is- for those of us who didn’t have a mom to teach us… you’re truly a blessing!!!! ❤️❤️❤️

Tessie yet again another inspirational and teaching video!…this is so important for those who do not have recourses for survival…you my friend are loved!….xxxooo

Hi Tessie. Good to see you. Hello to all here. We're enjoying cooler weather today in Maryland. So welcome after stifling heat. Hope others are getting a break also. God bless all. ♥️

Oh bless your heart tessie, when I dehydrated onions inside my home it smelt like 100 hard working men were sitting in my living-room stinky lol I dehydrate my onions on my back porch now lol thanks for these tips so important, wish I lived in Lancaster but I am down south texas and it’s been so hot I have struggled with my garden in this blistering heat and only 1/2 inch rain in 10 weeks. I pray I get a job soon as been without since December I didn’t qualify for unemployment as a truck driver I worked for a company in Cali but lived in Texas, both states denied me and I can’t drive trucks because of my eyesight…hard to change careers at 60 no one wants to train or higher me…pray for me please

I'm happy for you & am glad you have access to food that is salvable for consumption. Thank you for sharing, & thank you for thinking of others too. In todays world there are people who need this food, & there are people who are getting food boxes that don't need them. I like seeing communities work together to help each other. 🙏❤😊🌼

Thank you Tessie for all your help-I can’t count how many times you have given me tips and best of all encouragement.

Wow, that celery was perfect! What a great thing to have... wish every city did that. So much waste... your voice is so peaceful and soothing... just what I needed today!❤🇨🇦

My father in law made a wooden bin for apples and as long as the apple didn’t touch each other they didn’t spoil. He used straw or newspaper. Thanks for sharing all your knowledge. I grew Yukon gold potatoes one year but didn’t get as many of them as regular potatoes.

Nice jars, and what you did to them, gave them a new look...🥰

How lonely it has been to find your channel! Thank you for sharing all of your knowledge with the rest of us. I just adore your vintage art containers!!!

You are an inspiration with your service to others. I appreciate your help and advice for feeding our families economically.

Fantastic job, Tessie! Your so, so thrifty. Thanks for showing how to make sure all the food you got was reused!

Great video Tessie, I always look forward to seeing your video. Yours is the first one I watch every evening for some reason is the first one to appear on my feed and so I've grown accustomed to watching you first. Love the way you are and the way you live. This world is full of mean people but God looks at ar hearts and yours my friend is a good one, in my opinion. God Bless you and your family.

It is criminal, the amount of food that is thrown to landfill, when it is still quite okay. I think you are doing a good job, helping out at the food centre and using what others don’t want.

Tessie you are truly amazing! I love to watch you process salvage food. I have so much from you. Thank you for sharing! God bless

I love how innovative and hardworking you are! Im so inspired! Thankyou!

Waste not, want not. Is a saying that is rooted deep in my being. My grandmother, my mother and now I find myself saying it in life. I have chickens and a rabbit and a compost bin so when we have food scraps or not so fresh foods, it goes to feed or nourish something. One way or another. Blessings Tessie🙏❤️🙏

Tessie you could give before you ever took thats who you are. You make my days brighter, simpler, my easier happy clothesline days the most awesome time for me peaceful its like therapy for me.I finely found two churches here that give out food once a month on different day so my friend and I said we were going to see what it was all about and not to lie but a little embarrassed but my friend if you could have seen what we got sure cans were bent just a small example 1 case corn 1 case peas 1case green beans a case of caned potato's that was our first time there was more but to much to list. Now I go without embarrassment. Thanks to you I gave it a try. God Bless much love. I loved the way you did those jars just beautiful my friend you have such talent you were born for this.

Keep up the good work educating people. 💜🌞💜

Tessie you are so amazing and bless my heart everyday.

I just love what you did with the jars 😉

Tessie you are amazing everytime I watch you I learn something new.. Blessing

It’s a great life you’ve created! I’m feeling motivated to do more. ❤️

what a blessing this program is that you work with..and bonus extra food at the end! Id for sure be you! and haul it all home!

Another great video Tessie I love the jars you decorated ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Our church food pantry gave away yogurts that had not been given away and was near the use by date. We took 10 for the two of us and many others got all they needed. No one was deprived and food was saved.

Thank you Tessie for another wonderful video. You are such a smart lady and I appreciate so much how you keep us informed.

The jars are so great for storage. So nice to salvage and not waste.

You make it look so easy! It takes planning and equipment. Thank you for sharing

Tessie, You amaze me. It’s so funny I grew up same way but I’m not Mennonite. Makes me proud I listened to my mom and canned. Thank you for all you do God Bless you and keep making videos you’re helping people.

When in doubt throw it out. I'd rather do without the extra than make somebody sick. You are lucky to get those baby potatoes. Those are my favorite but they are 3$ a lb now. All that extra food is definitely a blessing. Thank you Lord for taking care of Tessie and Ken.

Thank you for sharing Teresa! You're amazing!

I love the cute labels. 👍 I wish we had a place for salvaged food here. I do my best to pick the sales if I can.

Just discovered your channel. I’m glad you’re able to have access to these foods. For the life of me, I can’t imagine why people get mad because someone is able to eat and not starve. Where I live, I have too much income to get any help of any kind, but my income is depleted terribly after paying bills and buying things we absolutely have to have..not really enough left for food. I’m very thankful for what I do have, but I do wish I were able to get a little extra food somehow so that I didn’t have to worry so much about how my family is going to eat. God bless everyone and may God watch over you all.

I live in Pensacola FL, I truly wish we had a place like this here.I think it's great that you and all the other people can do this.

I love those jars!! Beautiful! Thank you for sharing your talent and knowledge!

Thanks Tessie , I just love seeing ur ideas . Blessings to You and ur family.

There is just the two of us here and I often buy those potatoes because I don't want to buy a whole bag. Those are delicious with the seasoning pack. I am probably not going to be the type of person that cans things. But I did buy a food dehydrator at your suggestion. And we recently bought a box freezer to take advantage of meat sales. Thank you for sharing so much of your knowledge with us. You truly are a treasure.

What a blessing it is for you to have something like this! Too much food is wasted in this country; I would definitely take advantage of this if we had something like it where I live.

Hi Tessie, I just order a set of labels & told her I found them on your video. Now I need to make my jars look as cute as yours do :)

Very good. Some local Churches do have a drive up food bank scheduled at a day of week at an hour time. The Church distributes donated foods that Chain Grocery Stores such as Walmart donate for redistribution. Usually the Church Staff only ask for your name for their records keeping.

When my husband and I lived in PA the church my husband worked at and we went too had that a couple Weds a month. Many times they had a lot of food left over. So they told us we could take some and then asked us if we knew of anyone in our neighborhood that could use it. I find it kinda strange that those need food would be so super picky. Your getting food for free and it does not have to be perfect to be eatible. The times we got some of the extra foood was helpful. We did not make with my husband working at the church. So those time it was a blessing. There was also a meal night our church did on every Weds and they encouraged people of the church to come so when homeless or those i need came to get the free meal we could make them feel welcome and we could eat along side of them.

Love the jars. They are so cute.

Thank you for showing us another way to save and feed my family. God bless you and yours.

Wish I had something like that. Good for you. Enjoy being you.

You are so amazing Tess ! Is there anything you don't do.God Bless your knowledge that you share with us all.Love ya girl.🙏👍💞🧞‍♀️😍

Theresa is my name and gleaning my game !

This is a fantastic post. Your so frugal and resourceful - I love it. Thanks Tessie :)

You blew my mind with dehydrating the bread for crumbs!! You are amazing!

Tess…thank you so much for such an informative video about storing potatoes! It seems that sometimes I throw out more than we can eat. I’ve actually started using instant mashed potatoes, and I’m at least happy that with half and half, cream cheese, along with plenty of S&P, plenty of butter and even more trial and error, I can fool a lot of people. It may seem like too much to pay, but it’s still cheaper than throwing them out! Also, never forget the power of cheese….lol! You’re such a wonderful person Tess! I don’t always reply, so you might not recognize me? But I’ve been with you from your beginnings….and have so happily get past your shyness to a beautiful, confident RU-vid hostess! Much love and congrats my dear girl! 🥰😘❤️😍

So glad to see this food saved. We are very frugal and hate to see waste. Kudos to you!

I think it's great how incredibly industrious you are. You would survive well off grid, you practically are already!

Thank you for sharing the information on dehydrating bread. I can't wait to try it . Much Blessings from Arizona

Tes, I love the tips on the potatoes....I didn't know that. And....those labels are the cutest!

Thank you for sharing your way of doing these things, I would have not thought of making bread crumbs and putting in the freezer. Your jars are so cute! 💕

Thanks for the useful information. Really enjoyed this video.

Tessie I love your home .. I would love a home like yours.. I live in a small camper but it is homey and comfortable. But I would absolutely love a little more room .. but I really am happy to find your channel

This type of program is needed all over our country. Food waste is shameful. 😪

WOW! You did an awesome job sharing and explaining your process and possible safety concerns. Take care and God bless.