Finding the humor in my life's experiences.
I Do Not Want To Become A Potato Farmer 10-21-09
Posted 10-21-2009 at 11:56:09 AM by pasharain
My best friend, who I shall call "Dee," lives in a $300k house and is on vacation more than she is at home. She has a friend who works for an airline, so she flies free just about everywhere. She just has to do it on standby. She just got home from Germany and is leaving Thursday for Virginia.
Dee and her husband are very frugal people who buy most things used or on clearance. They are the type of people who have no idea what "new car odor" smells like and would be happy no other way. Perhaps that is how they can spend so much time away from home.
Today Dee took me on my first "gleaning" experience. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, "gleaning" refers to picking up the left over crops after a farmer has harvested. Being a "city gal," I thought "gleaning" was just something that is talked about in the Bible.
We drove over an hour and had many false leads before finally discovering a sweet potato field that had recently been harvested. Dee proclaimed with glee, "Why should we pay for potatoes when we can glean?"
It is amazing what is left behind after a harvest. To me it sounded like something out of an an old movie, but the farmers actually wait a few days after the harvest to plow to allow gleaning. I originally hail from New Orleans and left my birthplace because of the horror of Hurricane Katrina. I kept wishing the field was back home in Louisiana and not in eastern North Carolina. There are so many people in New Orleans that could benefit from the opportunity to glean a field.
Dee and I were well equiped with gloves, plenty of plastic bags and boxes. However, neither of us thought to pack water of all things. After about 45 minutes, we had about 4 boxes filled and I thought I was going to die from exhaustion. We decided to stop for lunch and, after having rested, decided to call it a day.
As happy as I was with our "harvest," while I was walking off of that field, I decided then and there that I would never become a potato farmer. It was very hard work that I did not care to entertain again. Despite my heartfelt commitment to that decision, a hamburger and a diet coke later, Dee and I planned to hit another field next weekend that is presently in the process of being harvested.
Why should I pay for potatoes when I can glean?
Dee and her husband are very frugal people who buy most things used or on clearance. They are the type of people who have no idea what "new car odor" smells like and would be happy no other way. Perhaps that is how they can spend so much time away from home.
Today Dee took me on my first "gleaning" experience. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, "gleaning" refers to picking up the left over crops after a farmer has harvested. Being a "city gal," I thought "gleaning" was just something that is talked about in the Bible.
We drove over an hour and had many false leads before finally discovering a sweet potato field that had recently been harvested. Dee proclaimed with glee, "Why should we pay for potatoes when we can glean?"
It is amazing what is left behind after a harvest. To me it sounded like something out of an an old movie, but the farmers actually wait a few days after the harvest to plow to allow gleaning. I originally hail from New Orleans and left my birthplace because of the horror of Hurricane Katrina. I kept wishing the field was back home in Louisiana and not in eastern North Carolina. There are so many people in New Orleans that could benefit from the opportunity to glean a field.
Dee and I were well equiped with gloves, plenty of plastic bags and boxes. However, neither of us thought to pack water of all things. After about 45 minutes, we had about 4 boxes filled and I thought I was going to die from exhaustion. We decided to stop for lunch and, after having rested, decided to call it a day.
As happy as I was with our "harvest," while I was walking off of that field, I decided then and there that I would never become a potato farmer. It was very hard work that I did not care to entertain again. Despite my heartfelt commitment to that decision, a hamburger and a diet coke later, Dee and I planned to hit another field next weekend that is presently in the process of being harvested.
Why should I pay for potatoes when I can glean?
Total Comments 4
Comments
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LOL! Now that is what I call enjoying the fruits "vegetables" of your labor. ;)Posted 10-21-2009 at 05:12:16 PM by ocean_brez
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Sounds like you had a nice day and glad you got to reap some usables.
In my neck of the woods, they'd shoot you though. Farmers here are money hungry and would rather let things lay and rot than let somebody come and get to use. Believe me, I used to work for a 500 acre farm. I saw lots of usable produce lay waste. I kept telling the farmer that he could donate it to the local food pantry. I even told him that I could arrange a volunteer crew to harvest it. But, Oh no.... He couldn't just give it away. He let it rot.Posted 10-22-2009 at 06:47:59 AM by ELLE-TN - Reminds me of when I was a kid and we'd go to Granddaddy's farm and help harvest the garden (don't remember how many acres his garden was, as far as I could see) ... I think he actually had a tractor a couple of years which made it nice ... we could put the crops on the trailer he drug behind the tractor instead of carrying them all the way up to the house! We used to harvest a lot of vegetables every year. THEN "got" to help Grandma get them ready for canning -- mind you, they had NO electricity, which meant we had to pump the water by hand if the windmill wasn't working, bring it in the house to put on the wood stove, go get the wood for the stove ... well, let's say we definitely slept good after a weekend of that (sometimes for several weekends in a row of doing this)!
But, we sure did eat good!! nothing like this "fresh" produce in the stores. In fact, most of the stuff I see in the stores and have to pay them to bring home, my granddady would've thrown to the hogs. ... either the hogs ate good, or we've really lowered our standards.Posted 10-28-2009 at 12:30:12 AM by jaws1 -
That would be so cool I would love to do that then freeze up the extrasPosted 10-30-2009 at 01:58:54 AM by Lindseyjarenjayden
