Gleaners

APPLES & PEARS

On the Ground Oh My!

BY KATE NICHOLS

“Local organic food often has the reputation of being too expensive for many folks, especially seniors, food bank patrons, and schools. Yet it was falling on the ground uneaten all around town,” explained Seth Rolland.

The desire to connect that fruit to people who needed it motivated Rolland, Cathie Wier, and Judy Alexander to start Quimper Community Harvest Gleaners.

When a tree owner emails the gleaners for help, it’s usually about older trees in their yard that have grown too big to easily pick or trees that bear more fruit than their family can eat. Homeowners who can pick their fruit usually deliver it to the Food Bank, so the gleaners donate most of the fruit they pick to schools. They also provide fruit to organizations such as senior centers and the Dove House. About a dozen gleaners also maintain the Blue Heron Middle School orchard, where students pick the fruit.

Wier and Alexander have mostly retired from gleaning, but others have taken their place. There are now four organizers: Kathy Darrow, Suzanne Wilson, Gabrielle Vanwert, and Seth Rolland. They have a core crew of about ten gleaners and tree checkers (who make sure the trees are ready to harvest), and another 20 people who come occasionally to help with picking or organizing the gleanings. The gleaners always get permission to gather the fruit.

The most perfect fruit goes to the school kitchen for lunches, but some fruit goes to classroom teachers, who can encourage children to try the fruit so they learn that fruit doesn’t have to look perfect to taste good. Some apples are too blemished for fresh eating, so Jim Moore came up with the wonderful idea making delicious, fresh applesauce. He found an Italian sauce machine named Fabio. Mary Hunt acquired a food-grade apple chipper.

The Health Department requires that food be kept between 40 degrees and 140 degrees for less than four hours, so Moore invented a heat exchanger, or what Hunt calls the “Killer Chiller,” for rapid cooling. This year 900 pounds of apples were turned into 700 pounds of applesauce for the schools to use throughout the year.

During peak season, gleaners pick twice a week for about two hours, on Tuesday afternoons and Saturday mornings. They start in August with cherries, early plums, and figs. September offers pears, Italian plums, and apples, and they end with Asian and apples in October. This year they delivered a remarkable 11,796 pounds of fruit to 20 organizations!

At the end of the season, the lead gleaners send a message of appreciation to their volunteers: “By donating your time and care, you have helped care for a vast community orchard that is feeding our neighbors and friends with healthy local food.” The Food Co-op donates to this great organization.

For more information or to sign up to volunteer, go to their webpage on the Local2020 site: https://l2020.org/local-food/ community-harvest/.

Seth and gleaner buddy Apple Press