It is bean harvest in our area right now.
Historically, we should have had the first freeze
of the season about two weeks ago.
As we have "late" beans, we are grateful that the
freeze has been late.
On our way to Rancho 25 today we passed a farm where the bean
harvest is complete...at least according to the farmer who owns the farm.
For others
the harvest is just beginning.
This is what a professional Gleaner looks like.
He along with several other people come to the farms that have
been mechanically
harvested and glean what has been left behind
by the large equipment.
It was really fun to see how he was going
about his harvest.
He walked through the "harvested" field finding
bunches of beans that had
been overlooked. He then made a pile of
the dried plants. He had laid out a
small tarp, he then placed the
dried bean plants on top of the tarp.
With a large, well used stick he began
beating the
dried plants to loosen the beans from their pods.
Once the plants had been sufficiently beaten...he lifted the dried plants
to find beans.
We stopped to talk to him...I asked if I might take his
picture. He agreed,
and as I did I asked him questions about his life
and how he harvested
and what other things he harvested. He explained
that he had made a life
from what had been left behind. Some of what he had gleaned he would
used
to feed his family, and the rest he would sell. It was a pretty great thing
to watch.
As The Farmer and I drove away I said something like...
these kind
of people are becoming scarce. That in another 8-10 years there probably
wouldn't be anyone left that would be willing to work this hard to make a
living.
The Farmer agreed but also added...that if things really got
bad enough in the world...
we would all be willing to beat a few bean plants
to have something to eat.
I think he is probably right.
For now, it was
a lesson to me that if you look really close...
you might just find
something of great value...if you are willing to work for it!
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