# Gleaning ...



## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

Something you don't see mentioned often is gleaning. If you live in farm country check over fields after the harvest. Most modern machinery leaves large sections of grain or corn standing in corners, along the edges and/or around wet spots in the field. Find out who owns the field and ask permission to glean the leftovers. When I lived in Kansas we often gleaned bushels of corn in an hour or so of picking. You can also get wheat, soybeans or whatever else is available for the labor of harvesting it by hand. It's a good way to get more grain to add to your stores.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

I agree ... :2thumb:

You can also practice gleaning in old apple orchards or such on a share ... so is better than to have none.

We have an older lady with a dozen or more apple trees down the road ... she can no longer tend the trees or pick apples ... so a guy down the road helps her out ... 

She gets the apples she wants and he gets the rest... he said it was the best deal he ever made. 

I get a call when the pears and walnuts start to fall ... all you have to do is stop and ask...


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## SurviveNthrive (May 20, 2010)

good practice and worth asking about.

I'd heard of a similar practice when they drain rice fields in Asia and get the carp or catfish or whatever fish where there. At a certain point, they stop harvesting and what remains becomes the property of everyone in the community.


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## sailaway (Mar 12, 2009)

There are lots of fields to be gleaned in my area, orchards too. After Halloween I saw several fields loaded with pumpkins, other squashes and cabage. lots of grain too. These fields make for good deer and phesant hunting. 

The Old Testiment talks about gleaning also. The owner of a field wasn't supposed to completely empty it. Some was to be left behind for widows and orphans.

Going through town late this summer I picked up 9 ears of sweet corn that had fallen off a farm wagon into the street on it's way to our local farm market.


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## semperscott (Nov 7, 2010)

Also remember that 'gleaning' can also include more than food. I have 'gleaned' building materials just by offering to haul it off.


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

until fairly recently I thought this was how EVERYBODY lived...


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## iouJC (Nov 20, 2010)

> until fairly recently I thought this was how EVERYBODY lived...


LOL!!! ROF&LOL!!!
Hey Blob....I know what you mean!! My Dad and I used to get all kinds of stuff from other people's throw aways....OK, so it was their trash!! Anybody who throws away a brand new filing cabinet is DUMB!! We got all kinds of stuff though!! Good pieces of wood, and often brand new pieces of camping equipment, like lanterns and stuff. Once hunting season was over people throw away all kinds of stuff.


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Used ta get carrots, taters, onions an such after a local feller harvested, but alas, he don't grow veggies no more.

It's a good way ta get the stuff ya need fer a little work an not much in the way a cash outlay. Most folks won't go ta the work, that be what the grocery store be for.:scratch


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## GoldenBoys (Oct 8, 2010)

iouJC said:


> LOL!!! ROF&LOL!!!
> Hey Blob....I know what you mean!! My Dad and I used to get all kinds of stuff from other people's throw aways....OK, so it was their trash!! Anybody who throws away a brand new filing cabinet is DUMB!! We got all kinds of stuff though!! Good pieces of wood, and often brand new pieces of camping equipment, like lanterns and stuff. Once hunting season was over people throw away all kinds of stuff.


Try working in a landfill sometime. You wouldn't beleive what people and especially stores throw out! It was always a knock down, drag out when the load from K-Mart showed up! everything from coffee makers to watches were dumped.


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## The_Blob (Dec 24, 2008)

GoldenBoys said:


> Try working in a landfill sometime. You wouldn't beleive what people and especially stores throw out! It was always a knock down, drag out when the load from K-Mart showed up! everything from coffee makers to watches were dumped.


I was a sorter at the reclamation center for a while... :2thumb: on free stuff

on a side note: I recently have strarted draining all of the fluids from cars at a local junkyard for my waste oil furnaces:2thumb:


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## mmszbi (Nov 14, 2009)

When I was a kid, my mom would give my brother and I a burlap bag and we would follow the potato harvester. Whatever fell on the ground was good for the taking.
We have hundreds of orchards around here and many are very inexpensive Upick. Almost just as good. As most of this area was all orchards at one time there are hundreds of apple, peach and pear trees all over town that nobody harvests, all worth a knock on the door and haul away as much as you can process.
Also, with miles and miles of irrigation ditches, wild asparagus is aplenty, free for the taking.


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