S/O do you throw out homemade MM?

amother

Peony

Sun, Feb 25 2024, 8:19 pm

Alot of baked goods get tossed honestly as I don't touch baked goods at all and dh is pretty picky. Sometimes a child will eat some. I give out homemade real food usually like a soup and roll or something and I get really great feedback that ppl love it.

amother

Garnet

Sun, Feb 25 2024, 8:25 pm

I throw out most shalach manos, store bought and homemade. Sometimes my dh will want the mezonos and sometimes my kids will want something, but otherwise I will eat it and I dont want it tempting me bec it's not healthy for me. So I have learned to throw out. I used to try to find places to donate or give to my dh to leave at work. But no one wants all that junk. So I just throw out.

amother

Pear

Sun, Feb 25 2024, 8:30 pm

amother NeonBlue wrote:

I only eat the homemade stuff. The wafers and candy and drek get taken to work

Back when I worked in a nonJewish agency the office was my bal-tashchit dumping grounds for most things comestible. I still wouldn't bring in homemade goods of uncertain kashrut because people would assume I made it and it was therefore kosher. There weren't many frum people around but there were some, and there were some people who weren't shomer shabbos but ate kosher after some fashion, and there were Jews who may have eaten chazzer tref, but I didn't want to be the reason why someone inadvertently ate tref, no matter what he did on his own cheshbon.

amother

Chartreuse

Sun, Feb 25 2024, 8:38 pm

amother Pear wrote:

I doubt any of the frum people sending you home made goods were sending actual treif. Even if they don't keep your standards, it doesn't mean it's treif.

amother

Emerald

Sun, Feb 25 2024, 8:38 pm

Personally I wouldn’t buy from home bakeries without a hechsher.

I throw out all home cooked / baked shaloch manus unless it’s from a close relative.

If someone put food in that doesn’t have a hechsher - like they ordered candy in bulk without individual wrapping and hechsher I would throw out as well.

amother

Stonewash

Sun, Feb 25 2024, 8:52 pm

amother NeonBlue wrote:

I only eat the homemade stuff. The wafers and candy and drek get taken to work

What’s that?

amother

Wallflower

Sun, Feb 25 2024, 8:58 pm

amother Chartreuse wrote:

I doubt any of the frum people sending you home made goods were sending actual treif. Even if they don't keep your standards, it doesn't mean it's treif.

I live in a very mixed community. I teach in the local school and know more than I should. I know some of these families have their nannies doing the shabbos cooking while they're at work. Even if the nanny is very well trained, it's a bishul akum issue. I would not eat anything that comes out of those kitchens or offer it to anyone else Jewish.

amother

Heather

Sun, Feb 25 2024, 9:03 pm

amother Chartreuse wrote:

I doubt any of the frum people sending you home made goods were sending actual treif. Even if they don't keep your standards, it doesn't mean it's treif.

No, of course it's not actual treif but people assume it's up to your personal standards and that's the judgement they use when choosing to eat homemade food that you brought in/give out (unless you post a personal disclaimer that it was made by others). That's why I don't repurpose homemade stuff I am given into my own personal MM that I give out, because the recipients assume it was made by me/my standards.

zaq

Sun, Feb 25 2024, 9:17 pm

amother Stonewash wrote:

What’s that?

Yiddish via German for, ah, solid undigested food waste that emerges from the back end. Don't use this word in front of your rabbi or your mother. (or your kids!)

Last edited by zaq on Sun, Feb 25 2024, 9:35 pm; edited 1 time in total

amother

Pear

Sun, Feb 25 2024, 9:26 pm

amother Chartreuse wrote:

I doubt any of the frum people sending you home made goods were sending actual treif. Even if they don't keep your standards, it doesn't mean it's treif.

There are people I get homemade MM from who are not Orthodox. Purim is also celebrated by people who are "traditional" and not necessarily shomer shabbos and mitzvos. While they don't eat pork and may (or may not) keep meat and milk separate after a fashion, I have never been in their kitchen. I do know that one of the people in question shares an apartment with a nonJewish roommate. That alone is enough to make her homemade food cherem.

amother

Pear

Sun, Feb 25 2024, 9:30 pm

amother Heather wrote:

You got it in one. Thank you. I thought my post made that pretty clear.

agreer

Sun, Feb 25 2024, 11:13 pm

I love homemade goodies and wish I got more! Most people here don't bake.
The only thing I wouldn't eat is if something had questionable ingredients, like if someone gave out chocolate-covered strawberries with stems attached, or a salad with raw fresh broccoli or cauliflower.

Choc. chip cookies? Rugelach? Potato kugel? Yes, please!

To the people who throw out perfectly good food because they don't want it to tempt them, you make me cry.

Give it to your cleaning lady, send it to your kid's school or shul (if it's something wrapped), etc. Ask your neighbors if anyone wants. Try first.

Just throwing it out because you don't want it makes me so, so sad.

amother

Dill

Sun, Feb 25 2024, 11:33 pm

This thread reminds of once when a students mother was a professional baker, and she sent me the most gorgeous decorated mega cookie. Unfortunately I couldn’t trust her kashrus (she was struggling with frumkeit at the time) and had to dispose of it. I was so sad.
(Didn’t have a cleaning lady at the time, and worked in a frum place. And no I wasn’t going to knock by my neighbor to offer a beautiful baked good made from someone of the community to her cleaning lady.)

michimochi

Mon, Feb 26 2024, 12:02 am

Keep and eat only if I am fairly confident in their kashrut observance. Toss (or give to non-Jews) if doubtful.

shabbatiscoming

Mon, Feb 26 2024, 12:09 am

Im so glad that I grew ip.and have only ever lived in communities where we trust everyones kashrut.
We love home made things. Much rather thst to the other garbage people give out.
The rest we give to my husband to take to work.

Please dont throw things away. Baal tashchit is one of the first mitzvot I remember learning about. Its not right to throw something away that another person took the time to make.

amother

Wallflower

Mon, Feb 26 2024, 4:50 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

So what should those of us who live in beautiful mixed communities do? Does bal tashchis override Kashrus? My husband and I both work is frum settings.

salt

Mon, Feb 26 2024, 5:05 am

I love getting homemade baked goods.
Whatever we don't eat on Purim itself goes into the freezer and we have cakes to last us the next few weeks. No need to bake for shabbat for the next few weeks!

Other homemade stuff like little salads, etc, go out at the seuda, or into the fridge to eat the next day.

Nosh like toffees and other yucky stuff than even my kids won't eat (like Israeli strawberry flavoured Bamba and smelly Cheetos) - go to work, either for whoever wants to eat, or into a collection box for the needy.

BadTichelDay

Mon, Feb 26 2024, 5:26 am

I trust the kashrut of people in our community, it's all a similar level. So yeah, we eat all homemade mm we get, unless it is mashed or something that easily spoils and may have been sitting outside too long. Dh and I both bake things for our mm to give to others. I hope they get eaten Wink

shabbatiscoming

Mon, Feb 26 2024, 5:35 am

amother Wallflower wrote:

So what should those of us who live in beautiful mixed communities do? Does bal tashchis override Kashrus? My husband and I both work is frum settings.

I dont know, but why throw it out? Find dome place thst can take it.

Bnei Berak 10

Mon, Feb 26 2024, 5:52 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

Its not right to throw something away that another person took the time to make.

Thanks for bringing it up.