Gleaning Stories, Gleaning Change

"Why Glean?"

This audio collage gives a range of voices talking about why they glean. We start and end with two longer reflections, one by Alan McEwan and one by Marco Harding. In between, we have shorter segments by gleaners we recorded ... mostly at gleans in the fall of 2008.

The photos were taken by Marco Harding at a glean with Ag Against Hunger in a fennel field near Castroville in November 2008.

Watch the "Why Glean?" video.

"Abundance, Waste, and Hunger"

The theme of waste and avoiding it ... in the field and elsewhere ... is one that occurs in many gleaners' stories. For some whose parents grew up during the depression or in the post-WWII years of scarcity, it's a lifelong habit. But younger folks, too, share the value. Avoiding waste, recycling, re-purposing. All are echoed through the stories we've collected. More on food waste ...

The music under this audio collage is "Intimo" performed by Sam Rush and David Grisman.

In this video, this soundtrack plays over a photo portrait of the red lettuce glean where most of these voices were recorded. We gleaned several thousand pounds of lettuce and left many more thousand pounds behind.

Watch the "Abundance, Waste, and Hunger" video.

"Everyone Has a Story"

This is an 11-minute slideshow that takes folks into the fields to glean and to collect gleaners' stories. Imagine the opening sequence in a field of three kinds of organic lettuce. Workers load Ag Against Hunger's flatbed truck and pick the lettuces. Then there's a quick sequence of gleaners and the variety of crops we glean. And finally it's on to photos of the glean on August 8th and of the folks whose voices you'll hear recorded at that glean. In the slideshow, I match the audio with the photos. Here, you'll just have to imagine them.

The music under this soundtrack is four pieces by Michael Hedges: "Hot Type", "Aerial Boundaries", "Magic Farmer", and "Bensusan".

Watch the "Everyone Has a Story" video.

"Welcome to 'The Gleaners: A Harvest of Stories'"

This is a six and a half minute slideshow introducing gleaning and the Gleaning Stories project team. The slide show with this soundtrack will play on the big screen at the Agriculture Museum near the entrance to our event. After a brief history of gleaning (showing Millet's "The Gleaners"), a sketch of local hunger, and a description of organized gleaning with Ag Against Hunger, each Gleaning Stories project member gives a brief sense of what intrigues them about gleaning or the story project.

Watch the "Welcome to The Gleaners" video.