July 25: Gleaning Plums

A real glean in an organic plum orchard near Castroville. The farm had been in the same family since the late 19th century. We were doing the third pass through this orchard, so pickings were slim. It took sharp eyes and a little luck to find the remaining plums that were ripe but not over-ripe. The ground was dotted with too-ripe plums that had already dropped, and we had to be careful shaking the trees not to bruise the remaining fruit. Still, we gleaned a couple of hundred pounds of wonderful San Jose plums that the food banks and food pantries will be delighted to get. And we got to take plums home. Most of us grabbed bags of slightly over-ripe fruit to slurp immediately or cook into a favorite jam or sauce.

Listen to stories from the July 25th glean

Stories of Ananda Jimenez

Gleaners with Ag Against Hunger know Ananda as their gleaning coordinator. But fewer folks probably know her history as an organic farmer. She farmed in Oregon, Florida, and New York, and got a first-hand look at the amount of waste on even small farms. She home-schooled her kids, so they spent plenty of time in the fields with her. Her mother's father was a Jewish baker in Massachusetts, and Ananda says she got her entrepreneurial spirit from her grandparents. Her father's family lives in a small town in rural Spain, where sharing is a way of life.

Listen to Ananda's stories

Stories of Lupe Rivas

Lupe Rivas is one of the pioneers of bilingual education in Bakersfield. She now lives, teaches, and is politically active in Watsonville.

Rivas grew up in Texas, the oldest of 7 children. Her father was an auto body repairman, while her mother worked as a housekeeper. The family did field work, as well, traveling to Michigan as seasonal laborers. Her stories tell of making dolls of the overgrown cucumbers in the field while her parents worked, of gleaning strawberries, of the move to California and her transition from field work to store work to teaching there, and of her attempts to introduce her children and grandchildren to the experience of field work.

Listen to Lupe Rivas's stories