And people still believe that our government has the best interests of the people at the forefront when creating food legislation?

Here’s hoping, Ed! Viva la revolucion!

Michele, hi neighbor! You know, it’s just nonsensical to me. That and all the abandoned orchards around us: why, when people don’t have enough good stuff to eat?

Denise, I have! I tend to have a hard time getting my husband to sit through subtitles but we both enjoyed it. But yeah, we’re looking for more crops to pick.

Amara, well, yes and no. Gleaning crops once they’re finished is a more traditional way of getting free produce, though admittedly it’s harder on we pickers. Here we just got lucky.

Oh Sylvie I agree. Such waste.

Hi Liz, yep, I read it when it came out, because frankly I am a food-life dweeb. It’s quite a coincidence though that you were reading that particular section!

MC, the pitter was at a long-standing U-Pick farm. Same family, same ground, 145 years. Pretty cool machine!

Tameson, well, sign up! Montessori believes that learning and learners happen at any age.

JCC, change starts with YOU my dear. I will just be here to give you a nudge.

Grandmabecker, totally topsy-turvy world. Let’s not even get into chronic health issues directly related to diet, but yeah, people have been sold a really bad bill of goods. But these tart ones were actually rather sweet, and tasty.

Randi, (bows deeply)

Laurene, let us hope! It’s criminal, the alternative.

TNR, my feeble understanding of it is just that flooding the market with an actual good harvest does nobody any favors. Unlike corn, soya, wheat, cane sugar or cotton that the government directly subsidizes, veggies and tree fruits undergo the price setting of the growers’ consolidation. And unlike milk it’s not fixed to a dairy’s distance from Eau Clare WI. Byzantine, convoluted, and simply wrong, but maybe that’s just me. The alternative is that the farmers bulldoze the trees which is likewise not terribly pretty, but it happens, especially around here with the fruits that require hand-picking (peaches, pears, some apples). Cherry trees can be shaken for their harvest. One tree can be picked in under a minute, with 200-300 pounds on the tree.

CC, I have thought about it. You know any publishers?

Stef, stay tuned, there’ll be more food renegade posts as the season goes on. But yeah I do know about the urban gleaning, makes lots of sense. Here they discourage fresh produce at the drop-offs! STUPID!

Aw, Milkweedy, thanks! “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”

Amanda, thank you! A book would be a fun diversion, and might even make me keep better notes! We’ll see…you know how fun it is to spread yourself very thin.

What a perfect July 4 story. Glean on, revolutionary cherry-pickers! Long live free local fruit for kids!

The cherries look wonderful! Now I wish I could do the same!