Do you have one? Do you use it?

I ask because I have one that I very rarely use. My sink has a tendency to
clog and every time I use the disposal, I fear that it will clog again.

When we bought this house about 3 years ago, the sink was clogged. I knew
this. The plumber came out and snaked out the main line. Fine. Until I
began canning all those apples and pears. I put tons of peels and cores
down the sink. There is no doubt in my mind I overworked the poor disposal.

Called the plumber again. Was told never to put peels of any kind down the
sink. Or cores. Or seeds. Fine.

Left the house one day while husband was steam cleaning the carpets. I
begged him not to put the dirty water down the kitchen sink because I was
tired of it clogging. Told him instead to put it down the sink in the
garage. Why do we have a sink in there? I don't know, but we do. So what
did he do? Put it down the kitchen sink.

I came home to a clogged sink. Couldn't manage to unclog it myself which I
sometimes could by bailing and plunging and running the disposal until it
released whatever was the problem.

Called the plumber again. He said this time the problem was paint chips.
White paint chips. I finally determined that it wasn't paint chips but egg
shells. Or egg peels. Yes, peels. What I was told before never to put
down there. He also told me that all I needed to do in the case of a clog
was remove some little piece underneath the sink and clean it out. I was
kind of afraid to do this for fear of not getting it back on right.

About two weeks went by and yes indeedy I had to call the plumber again!
This time I have no clue what the cause was, but I was told I needed a new
disposal. Fine. Also had him put in a new faucet because that was starting
to leak. And he had to replace some pipes because he said those were
leaking. Whatever.

So he did all this work and then told me never to USE the disposal. I was
like... Say what? Why do I have it then? He told me a disposal was only
meant to handle the lone bite of meat, bit of gravy or couple of peas left
on a plate. It could handle that just fine, but it could not handle large
amounts of food and would get clogged if I put too much down it. Said my
best bet was never to put food down it deliberately and to run plenty of hot
water down it every day.

Oddly, each time the plumbers came, they commented that there was no grease
in the trap. They said most clogs were caused by grease but mine never
were. My parents told me years ago never to put grease down the sink and I
never did.

But I find this hard to believe that I can never use the disposal. I've
lived in plenty of places and most of them had disposals. I've never had
problems like this. Except for the time I tried to put the daisies down the
disposal. I figured they were kind of like salad. But I've also been told
salad should never go down the disposal either. In fact I tried looking it
up and found all sorts of conflicting advice on what I should or should not
put down it.

Any thoughts?