40,000 flock to fields for farmers' leftovers

Columbus Dispatch ^ | November 24, 2008 | AP

[mlocher]

PLATTEVILLE, Colo. (AP) -- A farm couple got a huge surprise when they opened their fields to anyone who wanted to pick up free vegetables left over after the harvest -- 40,000 people showed up.

Joe and Chris Miller's fields were picked so clean Saturday that a second day of gleaning -- the ancient practice of picking up leftover food in farm fields -- was canceled yesterday.

[nina0113]

I wish the tomato farmers in these parts would do something like this instead of first poisoning and later burning the fields.

And don't forget, every truckload of tomatoes that leaves the Eastern Shore is actually a truckload of WATER. When I lived there, people were having to get deep-wells dug because the tomato-irrigating agribusinesses had drained the upper water table and the shallow wells were running dry.

[weegee]

40,000 people? There are that many illegal immigrants there?

I’m told that Americans won’t pick produce.

[weegee]

How much were they paid an hour to do this work? I hear that this has to be low wage labor.

Free??? And they were Americans doing the labor?

Then again, in Ohio, there are people who will PAY to pick strawberries.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

I was shocked by this story. That just seems like an awful lot of people. How did so many find out?

[tiki]

As a farmer I have to say WOW, but not SHAMWOW! We have stuff left all the time, I tell people about it and they all want me to go out and pick it and bring it to them, decrepit old ladies, yeah, able-bodied anyone else, no.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

I call bull on the numbers in this story. A 600 acre farm, 30 acres used for a parking lot, so around 570 acres left for “gleaning”.

At 570 acres, you would have 70 people per acre.

That is a 25 by 25 foot section of field per person to glean from. Since these were left-overs from harvest, how many carrots, potatoes and leeks do you figure each person got? Maybe a couple of pounds at most?

So, a 37 miles trip for Denver to dig in the cold ground for $3 worth of roots?

That seems a little odd to me.

[rednekelmo]

Colorado darn it not Ohio.There are more dirty freeloading hippies in Denver than all of Ohio

[radiohead]

the old folks would show up in their lincolns,caddies etc

Oh man, reminds me of when they would give away fans in Philly. You'd have old people roll up in their cars to get a $20 fan. It's hot in Philly every summer. If you're 65-70 years old, haven't you figured out that it's gonna get hot? Don't you already have a fan? Don't you have kids/grandkids who can scrape up $20 for a box fan? They'd put these freeloaders on the news like they were handing out loaves and fishes. I wanted to smack them all.

[4yearlurker]

Back in 1963 we lived in Phoenix,AZ. One afternoon the old man took us to a huge potato field. Standing along the road were about 100 or so folks with burlap bags. I remember a lot of Indian women with their hair up in buns with long dresses. The farmer harvested all the potatoes he wanted and stood up on his tractor and waved his arm. We all ran in the field like a Easter Egg Hunt. Lots of small potatoes and some damaged ones. We filled three big burlap sacks with those dirty potatoes. The old man traded a sack of spuds for a sack of carrots at the local beer joint. Baked and boiled potatoes and carrots with white sauce for lunch and dinner all week.

[newbie 10-21-00]

Err, this is the WaPo. Convinient there are no pictures. Wonder why that happened. Maybe, just maybe, BECAUSE IT DIDN’T HAPPEN. 40,000 people my ass!!!!

[television is just wrong]

lol, that is how Bill Handel got himself in trouble giving free cheese.

[television is just wrong]

that is great.