Summer Squash and More Gleaning Soon!

Hello Gleaners!

I am sure that you are all waiting for your first opportunity to glean this season!  I can assure you that it will come soon.  As the season progresses, and as the heat continues to bear down upon us (and the plants), farmers will be able to donate more produce than we will know what to do with!  But so far, it has been slow-going since not many plants have offered us their fruit quite yet.

Nevertheless, Scott Clarke at Gore Place Farm has donated 1000+ pounds of summer squash already this week, with more to come soon!  This is the same squash that we helped to plant earlier this season in April!  His farmworkers and interns have been busy harvesting the squash by means of maintenance harvests, so that they are able to get the highest quality and highest yield of squash from the plants.  This means that they are picking the not-so-perfect - but still wonderfully tasty - squash from the plants in order to promote the continual growth of the plant.  Of course, they are saving plenty of the squash that they pick for their farm stand, but we are able to donate the produce that they can’t sell.  I have only had to transfer the squash from their tubs into banana boxes and put it into our van: an easy job for such a large amount of food!  We have donated the squash to Jewish Family and Children’s Service in Waltham, the Watertown Food Pantry, and the Waltham Salvation Army.  Thanks so much to Scott and the Gore Place farmers!

So, dust off your harvest knives, and get your sunscreen ready, as we will soon be out in the fields!  In the meantime, relax with a cup of cold lemonade during this hot summer heat while listening to this incredible version of “Summertime” by Booker T. & The MG’s (see below).

To the Harvest!

Matt Crawford
Gleaning Coordinator

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