Re: Gleaning

**M* S* <m*@gmail.com>**

Rosemary and Betty,

Gleaning on an informal level is probably alive and well on many small and
subsidized farms. When I worked for The Coolidge Center for Experiment
Agriculture, for example, the board decided, for a time, that it would be
unfair to sell the produce, even at above-market prices, because the farm
was subsidized by the Coolidge family. Unwilling to see that much waste, we
called a couple of immigrant centers and they sent people to harvest.

I have also called community centers for help when I had a crop that came in
too soon or when a contracted buyer had an emergency and couldn't pick up as
promised and I had far too much stuff for my local markets to absorb.

The gleaners in France are well-trained and respectful of the farm, which
makes a huge difference. I am a bug...that's putting it gently...about my
beds. Even on a large commercial level, I work in permanent beds as much as
possible and have an iron-clad rule that NO foot ever steps on a bed. This
takes students and hired labor awhile to learn and I sit over them like a
hawk  until they do---it's as much of a rule as "your bum must never touch
the ground when you are doing in-row weeding," a standard rule on commercial
farms.

Instituting that much control over gleaners is really hard. For one thing,
even if you explain that you are protecting the lives of the small little
beings that live in the soil and help the plants grow, non-farming people
generally have a hard time grasping the concept. (I've had more success by
explaining that I am quite nuts and this is one of the ways in which it
shows....) So you often end up with a really trashed field that you have to
till again....ugh.

I have known other farmers who also brought in people to glean when faced
with an overabundance, too, so I would guess that almost all small farms
other than CSAs, who have a market and generally give out the "B-quality"
produce, are still donating to community groups. And, as Rosemary noted,
some CSAs plant enough to make steady and significant contributions to food
banks.

Miranda
_______________________________________________
gardenwriters mailing list
gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/gardenwriters

GWL has searchable archives at:
http://www.hort.net/lists/gardenwriters

Send photos for GWL to gwlphotos@hort.net to be posted
at: http://www.hort.net/lists/gwlphotos

Post gardening questions/threads to
&quot;Gardenwriters on Gardening&quot; &lt;gwl-g@lists.ibiblio.org&gt;

For GWL website and Wiki, go to
http://www.ibiblio.org/gardenwriters