17 Oct Sharing Our Abundance with Those in Need
Today we had 25 people of all ages out in our organic apple orchard, Honey Bear Orchard, shaking trees and picking apples. We had a great abundance of apples this year, and we wanted to find a way to share this with people in need in the surrounding community.
The Society of St. Andrews came out with all of these volunteers to gather apples from our trees. They are an organization that does gleaning, which is the gathering of fruits and vegetables from farmer’s fields at the end of the season that would normally go to waste. They then distribute the food free to hungry people in their community.
People came from the surrounding three counties to help out. It was a perfect sunny, fall day to be up on ladders shaking the branches and catching the falling apples in the tarps on the ground below. They collected thousands of red and golden delicious, romes and winesap apples.
I watched as boxes and boxes were being filled and carried to trunks and back seats of cars. Several pick up trucks filled their beds full of apples. By the time we were all done, Bill calculated that we had picked nearly 9000 pounds of apples to give away!
I was totally amazed at the amount and really happy that all this food was going to good use. My wife and I have decided to make this an annual event. It is so much fun to share our abundance and feed others.
The orchard is part of our eco-community that we are in the process of growing. You can learn more about it at www.HickoryNutForest.com.
To learn more about the St. Andrews gleaning effort or to share some of your harvest abundance, you can go to http://www.endhunger.org/.
John Myers
October 2007
No Comments