Hello Gleaners! With the Summer Solstice comes the beginning of the gleaning season! We went on our first gleaning trip this past Saturday (June 15) at Brookwood Community Farm in Canton, MA. You may have seen the pictures on our Facebook. With three volunteers, Duck, and myself, we harvested 300 pounds of kale and 60 pounds of shelling peas in just two and a half hours! Incredible! In terms of servings, that amount equals about 2000 80g servings. We delivered it all to Food for Free in Cambridge, and they, in turn, delivered it to among 82 pantries, shelters, and meal programs in and around Boston. We will be returning to Brookwood Community Farm again this Sunday (June 23) to harvest more kale, lettuce, and maybe some turnips and kohlrabi. It’s an exciting time of year! Also this past week, Duck and I were able to go on a tour of some local food pantries to which we deliver. We established a relationship with Watertown Food Pantry, and we hope to be able to provide them with plenty of fresh food to offer to their clients in the coming months. We also went to Jewish Family and Children Services as well as the Waltham Salvation Army to confirm delivery dates for the season with them. In other news, our Strawberry Fete Fundraiser was a huge success last night! A group of Board Members and I harvested the strawberries for the delicious strawberry shortcakes at Dick’s Market Garden in Lunenberg on Wednesday. There was live music and live art, as well as a Silent Auction, and it all took place at the beautiful Habitat Audobon Sanctuary in Belmont. If you haven’t been before, I’d suggest taking a walk there soon! The grounds are simply amazing. And if you missed the Fete, not to worry! We are hosting another Fundraiser on July 9 at Flatbread in Somerville. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for more info! That’s it for now. Enjoy the beginning of summer and this gorgeous weather, and I hope to see you out in the fields soon! To the Harvest! Matt Crawford Gleaning Coordinator Hello Gleaners! I would like to introduce myself as your new Gleaning Coordinator! I’m sure you have seen the blog entry on our website and the announcement on Facebook, so I won’t talk too much about myself here. I am excited to start gleaning with you all! As the weather indicates, the season is getting off to a quick start! That means that we should be getting out on a Gleaning Trip soon. So start getting ready! I will be reaching out to some of our most helpful and generous farmers this week, and I hope to set up our first official gleaning trip of the season in the next week or so. Also, I have officially had my “field training” with our previous Gleaning Coordinator, Miriam Stason (pictured here with me). So I am fully trained and ready to go! As you may know, last year we surpassed the goal set out by our Executive Director, Duck Caldwell, to glean 20% more crops than we gleaned in 2011. Miriam did a great job in running efficient and productive trips in the 2012 season, and it is my goal to continue this practice this season. Duck has set the goal of a 10-15% increase over last year’s gleaning totals, and I am confident that we can reach that. This may seem like a lower goal, but it is also our goal to reach out to more farmers and to expand our services to new places so that we can continue to grow our farmer network. If anyone has any suggestions concerning this expansion, please let me know! I would greatly appreciate any facilitation of contact with farmers within a reasonable distance of Boston. For example, we will be trying to expand to the North and South Shores. Most of our current farmers are in the Metro West area, and we see the North and South Shores as untapped markets at this point (Map Link). Well, keep your eyes and ears peeled for the first Gleaning Alert! To the Harvest! Matt Crawford 2013 Gleaning Coordinator |
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