Gleaning – or the gathering of leftover crops from the field after harvest – is in full swing for D.C. Central Kitchen and many mid-Atlantic area Campus Kitchens. And good news for Campus Kitchens who are not close enough to Washington, D.C. to pay our local farms a visit: there’s still time to make gleaning partnerships with your nearby aggies and collect what’s left from the season.

Campus Kitchens might want to partner with pick-your-own berry farms, which see  produce beginning to ripen in May and continuing until September, depending on geography. A few extra blueberries on a salad, or blackberries in a fresh-baked cobbler could be just the extra oomph (and antioxidants) community partners are looking for.

D.C. Central Kitchen recently took its interns on a gleaning trip to Germantown, Md. to Butcher’s Orchard berry farm. Volunteers went to work filling as many blueberry containers as possible with almost over-ripe berries – sweet enough to pop in your mouth right then and there – to take back and put in kitchen pastries and cobblers.

The blueberries were so ripe and plentiful in the 12 rows that Butcher’s Orchard graciously let volunteers pick, that clumps of them fell off into their hands. In less than two hours, volunteers had gathered more than 40 pounds of berries.

So what are you waiting for? Read up on gleaning and get to work forging farm partnerships. The harvest will leave your community partners satisfied.

Some additional advice from D.C. Central Kitchen’s Gleaning expert, Joelle Johnson:

“Gleaning programs can be a great asset to any Campus Kitchen as they provide fresh produce for summer meals at no cost. Local gleaning programs are also beneficial for farmers as it allows them to donate their surplus crops (that would otherwise be left on the fields) to those in need.

If you’d like to get your Campus Kitchen involved with gleaning before the summer is up, check out your state’s Department of Agriculture website, search for your county, and get in contact with the farms listed there. You can also go down to your local farmer’s market and tell them about the program and let them know that if they are interested in getting involved to contact you.

Many farmers do have email addresses, so gather their contact information and send them a brief one-pager explaining the program and how their donation will help to feed many in need in their community.”

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