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Sandra first brought Agnes Varda's film The Gleaners and I (Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse) to our attention and, in some important ways, inspired the Gleaning Stories project. Sandra and her younger sister are avid gleaners now. When I asked Sandra how she became a gleaner, she began talking about her mother, who grew up in Germany during the period of post-WWII scarcity. Sandra was born in Germany, then the family moved to Japan when she was 5, and to New York when she was 9. Her mother gleaned on all three continents, sometimes embarrassing her daughters as she inquired of neighbors and even strangers if they could glean their orchards, fields, or gardens. Her mother was committed to avoiding waste and not letting opportunities to grow or collect food slip past. The first part of our conversation traces Sandra's mother's odyssey from casual backyard and roadside gleaning to impassioned, almost obsessive, gleaning of commercial agricultural fields in Switzerland where she moved later in her life to take care of her own mother. The remaining parts trace Sandra's own path from reluctant childhood gleaner to impassioned adult gleaner, community gardener, and dumpster diver.
Listen to Sandra's stories
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
Iceberg: Luther Burbank's revenge on the lettuce-eating world! Actually, when I'm after crunch and not flavor, I like it.
The field today was one of Valley Pride's just south of Salinas. We had more folks than there were knives and crates, so teamwork and division of labor were the order of the day. A mild day, with overcast sky turning sunny as we cut, cleaned, and carried the lettuce heads. With so many working, it wasn't much over an hour and a half after we had all gone into the field before the 16 big bins on the truck were full and we were free to glean lettuce to take home for ourselves.
Today kicked off gleaning for Monterey County high schools. Everett Alvarez HS in Salinas hosted a barbecue after the glean and many students came to complete community service hours, activity credits, or just to do something worthwhile. Other students came from high schools from Watsonville to Monterey. Further afield, Archbishop Mitty HS in San Jose sent 24 students and 4 staff down as part of their 10-day immersion trip in their Ethics, Culture, and Justice class. Groups came from United Methodist Church and other area churches, and lots of families and individuals came to help out.Listen to stories from the June 6th glean
