Doing some good for the community

I know I haven't updated in a while.The last post I wrote,wouldn't post due to some malfunction with Blogger,and it got lost in cyber space somewhere.

Since then,we have signed up to help the local food bank rescue harvests that would otherwise go to waste.Groups of volunteers go out and pick vegetables,fruit,etc that would otherwise just sit in the field and rot.Tuesday was our first day,and boy oh boy do they move fast....in just under 3 hours the group harvested more than 300 boxes of apples.

We were going to go back and help this morning,but I woke up with a very stiff and sore back,so probably should not be doing a lot of bending/stooping today.Otherwise we would be on our way there right now to help harvest squash and cabbage this morning.

What I did not expect when we got there Tuesday was to come home a about 40 pounds of apples that we were given.

When we got to the orchard,the guy in charge pointed to one row of trees and told us we could pick and keep all the fruit from that row.YEAH! We got about 10 pounds of apples,nice little bonus!

In my email it said to bring your own buckets,bags,etc to pick into,so I took three bus tubs with me.We picked into those and then dumped them into the boxes gently.

As we were picking,we learned that we could also pick some for ourselves as long as we weighed it and logged it on the sign in sheet by our names,ok,sounds good,so when we ran out of boxes to fill,I filled a tub to take home,and that weighed in at 20 pounds,I logged it on the sheet as directed and put it in the car.

After more boxes arrived,and we were done clearing off the trees,the guy said anyone that wanted to walk back through and pick up apples that had been dropped or fallen from the trees could take all they wanted.I thought,cool,and filled up the other two tubs I had brought with us.So we came home with a grocery bag and three bus tubs full of apples.I shared some with a friend,and took some to my Mom on the way to work yesterday,and I think today I will start drying some for treats later.I love cinnamon covered dried apple slices to snack on.

I really like that fact that this program saves food that would otherwise go to waste,and it gets given to those in need.I didn't expect to come home with so mush for ourselves,but it was a nice little bonus.From what I understand you don't always get to bring some home,but when there is an abundance like with the apples,they are very generous.

I would encourage anyone who reads this,to try and take some time in one way or another to help your local community.In today's world,there are more and more people in need than every before.

So if you can help by doing something like this,of working a few hours in a soup kitchen,or even work with people directly and help to teach them to grow some of their own food,any way that you can help,will be a bigger help than you might think.