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Gleaning project, years ago I saw that in a newspaper and wondered what it was.
By writersedge
@writersedge (22563)
United States
October 8, 2008 6:29pm CST
So I read on. Farmers that use mechanized machinery to harvest corn can't afford to look through all the stuff left on the ground for the few veggies that the machinery missed. So the gleaning project sends volunteers or supervised inmates to the fields and they go through the busted up plants to find the few ears of corn or whatever that were missed. They are brought to food shelves and/or soup kitchens. An ear here and an ear there adds up. They get a bushel or two per field (depending on the size of the field and how well the equipment is working)
2 responses
@bloodhunter13 (245)
• Malaysia
9 Oct 08
that's a good project. leaving those left-behind veggies won't bring any good to anyone. waste not want not. people get food to eat. or the farmer can pay the guys for the hand-picked items but i don't think the number is large enough the farmer can't let the stuff go for free
i don't know if there's a project like that in my place. i believe the farmers have many workers to harvest the produce.
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
9 Oct 08
Here, a farmer may have one or two farmhands. If two,one works with the cows all the time. Most farmers have many, many acres. Why too many for one person to harvest. So they use farm equipment. That is our average modern farmer. We have Amish who have the older style farms that work by hand and have lots of children. Thanks and take care.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
9 Oct 08
I see you are new, I hope you enjoy Mylot. I always appreciate learning about another culture. I hope you will look at my Profile and see if there is anything else of interest that you would like to respond to. Thanks and take care.
@bloodhunter13 (245)
• Malaysia
13 Oct 08
hey. thx for giving me the best response. i appreciate it a lot:) yeah, i learn a lot about others in mylot
here i guess the extra crops go to the farmers' family, neighbour or workers. waste not want not. something not good enought for the market might not be bad enough to go straight to the bin:)
@PearlGrace (3171)
• United States
14 Oct 08
I grew up in corn country (central Illinois) and I've never heard of this term, "gleaning" used related to corn. I even detassled corn as a teen as a job (my second one as I babysat as my first job).
That's a very cool idea to salvage the rest of the corn that's left behind.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
14 Oct 08
Yes, I had only heard about it a few years ago. They're trying everything they can up here to help people. That's good. Take care.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
14 Oct 08
I didn't know you came from corn country, one of my Doctor's is from Illinois. TAking silk off corn, I didn't ever do that for a paying job, but I did help my Mom do that before we had corn for supper or before she froze some for winter. Take care
@PearlGrace (3171)
• United States
15 Oct 08
Detassling corn is when you are taken, by bus, out to the fields. A crew boss lines everyone up at the end of a very long row of corn. Then, you walk the row, pulling off the tassles from the top of the plant. I think it's done at a particular time to prevent polination after a certain time. Anyway, it is a very hot and itchy job. People faint like crazy! Plus, short people are completely covered by the itchy corn plants. It's a horrible job. But everyone does it when they are a teenager.
The crew boss walks crossways across all the rows and spot checks to see if you are missing tassles. If you miss a certain number and don't pull them off, you get fired. You get one 15 minute break in the morning and one in the afternoon. Plus, you get to stop for lunch. But, it's very, very hot and uncomfortable.
I don't know if they have machines to do that now or not.
