Gleaning Those Supermarket Fields

(Page 2 of 2)

September/October 1983
By Mae Hildred 
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WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR HARVEST

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We usually rinse off and use most of our finds as soon as possible after collecting them. And when we haul in an entire box load of one specific prize, we go on a canning spree! Right now, my cupboard is stocked with a dozen jars of pickles made from cucumbers just barely past their prime ... plus several quarts of crisp-canned (blanched and spooned in) onions and green peppers.

Then again, if we salvage, say, half a crate of a single fruit or vegetable (which is more than we can eat fresh, but isn't enough to can), we offer our surplus to friends and neighbors. At first, we thought folks might be a bit hesitant to accept our gleanings, but we've found that most people welcome the free edibles.

ANY QUESTIONS?

Nongleaners frequently ask me two questions: [1] Do you and your kin really eat this stuff?. . . . and [2] If trimmings are so terrific, how come everybody isn't beating a path to the back room of the local store's produce department?

Well, my unqualified response to the first query is this: You can bet your buttered parsnips we do!

And, in reply to the second, all I can honestly say is that I'm not really sure why more folks don't take advantage of this source of free goodies. I suppose some people find the thought of eating produce trimmings less than appetizing, but I find the idea of good food going to waste-in a world where uncounted numbers go hungry-to be downright disgusting!

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  • MC 8/5/2009 9:02:40 PM

    Down home, I've got 5 choices: Harp's, Aldi, WalMart, the produce stand, and the farmers' market. I know how to work the produce stand and the farmers' market. I'm all over that stuff from April to October. The other four months out of the year, I'm afraid to try the gleaning approach with the big boys.

    Has anyone made this work with a big chain supermarket??? OK, since I never heard of it before I moved to NWAR, Harps probably isn't that big, but it's still intimidating to me. Who do you ask, what do you say, how do you go about it????

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