by Helene Newberg, BAG Board President As a Gleaners board member, I spend most of my time behind the scenes: planning and running meetings, supporting our executive director, and encouraging other board members with the tasks that they take on. Every once in a while, my schedule accommodates a trip into the fields. Standing in a farmer’s field provides much to reflect upon: the growing cycle; the relationship of humans to land and food; the climate; the simple beauty of place that an urban commuter rarely gets to visit. I recently had the opportunity to go gleaning at the Food Project and, as I relieved plants of huge heads of cabbage, I considered the person who would eventually consume this product of human effort, climate, and generosity. I peeled off weathered outer leaves to reveal gleaming, wonderful-smelling cabbage. I considered whether the cabbage would be cooked and served at a homeless shelter. Or perhaps the cabbage would reach a distribution bag at a local food pantry, brought home by a neighbor stretching food stamps or a fixed income. I put myself in my neighbor’s shoes: on a limited budget, craving healthy food yet unable to justify the expense. My heart leapt at the gratitude I imagined feeling at the heft of this gorgeous cabbage. The recipient would not be thinking about the planting in spring, the work and worry of growing season, or the harvest. The recipient would not see the work of the Gleaners, or our old truck, or our gracious volunteers. In that moment, holding a cabbage that I wasn’t going to eat, and for a long time afterwards, the gratitude was all mine - for being able to help with hunger relief and for engaging in support of local farming. If you have not been gleaning yet this year, sign up for our Boston-area alerts and get yourself out in the fresh air, with good company, to do good things for hungry neighbors, farmers, and the planet. Hello Gleaners! What an incredible week for gleaning! Our van was full all three of the gleaning trips that we have been on this week, and I hope to fill it again tomorrow (Saturday, October 19) with apples at Kimball Fruit Farm in Pepperell. Sometimes, a full van means that geometrically we cannot fit any more cases of food, and sometimes it means that we cannot load any more weight into the van because of its load capacity. These are just a few examples of the constraints that we experience as an organization, and why sometimes we are not able to glean everything we possibly can from the fields. However, we did acquire a rented storage container to keep at our office in Waltham, so now we will not have to worry about where to store the produce between trips and deliveries! Nevertheless, a full van is still a lot of food to donate! On this past Sunday’s trip, we took away a full van of organic turnips (1500 pounds, 33 cases) from Hutchins Farm in Concord. We have been delivering these turnips over the course of the week and will continue to do so over the next week or so (thanks to our new storage unit!). On Monday, October 14, a volunteer was able to borrow his friend’s small pickup truck, and we were able to take away more than our normal capacity of food from Dick’s Market Garden in Lunenburg; we harvested and collected 1320 pounds of apples, 600 pounds of Spaghetti squash, and 425 pounds of Blue Hubbard squash (2345 pounds in 62 cases total). And today, we harvested 864 pounds of various cooking greens in 63 cases at Siena Farms in Sudbury. Of course, we couldn’t do any of this without our incredible volunteers, so we thank you, yet again! And we ask you to keep up the good work! We will be going out to harvest (hopefully) a full van of apples tomorrow, kale and cabbage on Sunday in Lincoln, and more greens towards the end of this next week. But, we are possibly going to have our first real frost early next week, so fingers crossed that those hearty greens stay hearty through a frost! On that note, I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend; enjoy this beautiful song by emancipator that will hopefully ease us all into the cold, cold winter. To the Harvest!
Hello Gleaners! This past month has been very busy for us, which is a very good thing! And it doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon. Since the end of August and through all of September, we have been going on an average of 4 gleaning trips each week! The crop we harvested the most during September, both in terms of poundage and number of cases, was apples; we picked 8,840 pounds in 221 cases at two farms: Kimball Fruit Farm in Pepperell, MA and The Food Project in Lincoln, MA. We harvested a good amount of peaches (1,600 pounds), corn (2,400 pounds), and various kinds of greens (1,209) during September, as well. This year was a bit different from last year in terms of what we have been harvesting. Last year by this time, we had picked 219.5 cases (7,585 lbs) of corn. So far this year we have only picked corn on 4 separate occasions (compared with 11 corn harvests by this time last year), for a total of 4,960 pounds in 124 cases. But, last year by this time we had only picked apples twice, for a total of 1,400 pounds! It really is interesting how small changes in seasonal weather can really affect a harvest of a specific crop, among other things. Looking forward, we hope to continue to harvest well through October, November, and December, so long as Father Winter doesn’t decide to come early this year. As of late, we have been getting a lot of calls for greens of different varieties (including chard, kale, bok choy, mustard greens, arugula, and some cabbage), which are a nutritious crop that pantries love. We also look forward to a few more apple picking trips this October. And then in November and December we will start to see more root vegetables (such as carrots, beets, turnips, etc.) become available to glean. Thanks for reading, and, as we say, To the Harvest! Matt Crawford, Gleaning Coordinator Hello! My name is Erin Feeney and I am BAG’s Fall Intern. I come to the gleaners after having spent the past three years as an English teacher in Boston and abroad. During my time teaching ESOL to immigrants, I became profoundly aware of what little access many people have to whole, healthy foods as well as basic nutritional information. Since that time I have strived to gain more knowledge of nutrition, agriculture, and regional food systems so that I can in turn impart what I have learned to others. Choosing to intern for Boston Area Gleaners was a no brainer as this opportunity brings together my interests in agriculture and resource management. I look forward to learning more about the running of a non-profit and, of course, being out at farms harvesting. In the upcoming years, I hope to pursue a master’s degree in environmental science, or a related field. With this degree, I would like to have a part in creating sustainable communities where all residents play active and vital roles in their local food systems. Interning with BAG will give me knowledge and experience to undertake these goals. I look forward to the rest of my time this fall with the gleaners and hope to meet many of our volunteers on gleaning trips. |
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