The Gleaners

I recently watched the wonderful documentary "The Gleaners and I" by French film maker Agnès Varda, and was introduced to an activity eons old, and still going strong. Gleaning is the practice of collecting food from fields, orchards, and vineyards after the official harvest has ended.

Gleaning is mentioned in the Bible, Koran, and Torah, which all support it for the poor and hungry. It was an activity traditionally conducted by the poor, but today many get involved to help minimize the incredible waste that comes with increasing wealth and industrialization.

Varda's 2000 film documents a wide variety of gleaners in rural France. She shows several paintings of gleaners including the one above. I recognized it as the painting that hung in my home when I was in elementary school. I always loved the simplicity and earthiness of this scene, but was not aware of its more controversial components.

French artist Jean-François Millet composed The Gleaners in 1857. When he unveiled it that year it was immediately unpopular with the middle and upper classes. They did not want to be reminded that their wealth was gained by the labour and sacrifice of the common folks. They must have also viewed the vast lifestyle gap depicted as rather distasteful.

Millet's painting celebrates the common people - they are the focus of his work. The three women stoop to their difficult work of gleaning wheat left over after the farm workers finished. Behind the women is a cart piled with the golden harvest. The fortunate landowner watches from his horse on the right.

The painting was completed at a time that French gleaning laws were being made more restrictive. Naturally, the peasants revolted, and the laws were eventually reinstated. They are still on the books today.

One hundred and fifty-three years after Millet's painting was displayed in the Salon, the income gap is wider than ever, and massive waste continues. However, peasant revolts aren't as popular this day and age. I think it has something to do with television and processed food.

Still, gleaning is as popular as ever, and is no longer restricted to the poor. Modern day gleaners are more commonly referred to as freegans, binners, dumpster divers, scroungers, food rescuers, or food salvagers.

There are also many talented artists that glean found objects for their work. Varda considered herself a gleaner of images.

Do a web search for gleaners in your area and something is sure to come up. Both Sooke and Victoria have urban fruit tree gleaning programs that split the haul between the home owner, the pickers, and food banks or other community organizations.

The practice of gleaning is certainly older than any of the religious texts that mention, and protect, it. Converting waste to useful purposes has been around in one form or another for as long as there have been humans. There is a reason that it still exists - because it makes sense to reduce waste.

It is natural that we should maximize on all resources available as global population rises, and as the rich continue to get richer, and the poor, poorer. We need to look out for one another, and gleaning is one efficient way of achieving this without spending vast amounts of money.

Gleaning is about not buying anything - stepping outside of the mainstream money system, and using the power of free. Which reminds me that blackberry season is just beginning...

Good gleaning to you.

Make It Last - Item #4: Wool Socks

When I lived in a housing cooperative the membership set up a "Free Store". This shed was where unwanted items could be placed. Any member could access the Free Store to stock up on any items they may need. This frugal, smart idea kept useful things out of the landfill, and supported the community.

I loved the Free Store and my partner and I both contributed to, and took from, this glorious free exchange of great used stuff. My favourite on-going find was a pile of gently used Merino Wool hiking socks.

I stopped buying cotton socks many years ago. First of all they are just too... well, white. But more importantly, as I found out as a hiker and backpacker, cotton is a notoriously poor insulator that soaks up water and dries painfully slow. Unhappy feet = an unhappy hiker.

As far as comfy, happy feet are concerned, you can't beat wool socks. I have also discovered that wool socks can last a very, very long time. Long after cotton socks would have been threadbare, I still wear the second hand wool socks from the Free Store, although they are due for replacement I must admit.

I broke down recently and splurged for two new pairs of wool socks. These luxurious cushions are my preferred socks for times I need the benefits of proper socks, such as when roaming the hills and valleys of my area. The new socks were expensive, as far as socks go, but I know these quality foot wraps will last me many, many years.

Now that my feet are happy, if I could only find a local Free Store.

Putting The "Free" in Freedom

Yesterday I was rummaging around various drawers and boxes in my tiny home. I was surprised at all the resources 586 sq.ft. could contain, and I am not talking about a double garage here. I am referring to my entire living space. Although I am no midnight pack rat stocking my home full of back alley and curb-side treasures, I do collect resources that may come in handy in the future. My place is not stuffed to the point of narrow junk corridors leading from room to room, but I do have some drawers that are threatening to explode. It's just that when you buy dill pickles you also get a perfectly good reusable glass jar with them. Something must be done with the jar. We are constantly surrounded by free valuable resources, especially if you are able to appreciate small gifts.

They say there is no such thing as a free lunch, but it sure would be easy in our over the top throw away society to furnish an entire apartment for free. Buck 65, Canadian rapper, did just that. He furnished his entire apartment with free resources, and can be seen in an episode of MTV's "Cribs". I hate to admit I have watched "Cribs", but the Buck 65 episode is by far the best I have seen. He makes the rest seem, well, quite wasteful with all their money.

Just take a look at the "free" section (found under "for sale") of Craigslist in your community or a community near you. As long as you had a truck to haul free loot, and a roof to stash it under, a person could drive into a community such as Vancouver or Victoria with nothing but the skin on your bones and after a few days have everything you needed. You would be benefiting the community at large because if you don't take that couch it is going to end up being shot full of holes up some logging road by a camouflage mini-skirted AK-47 toting back county Rambette (sad, but true. Her boyfriend posted a video of it on youtube). That perfectly good couch will look much better in your living room.

In my drawer and box rummage-fest I found I that I am "richer than I think" (can I use that or has it been trade marked? I will only use this phrase if it is free). Yes, I found luxurious socks that I have never worn before. I found a free pack of playing cards, still hermetically sealed in cellophane, that I acquired from a case of Pilsner beer back when I used to buy beer. I have books on the shelf I have never read, and clothes I have not worn since the last time the NDP formed the government of BC.

I realized that my modest patio garden all came to me gratis. The many containers were saved from the recycling area of our building. I got the soil from a slump down the beach that would have been eroded away by the next high tide. Actually, I saved some nice flowers from the slump as well, and took those home to relocate into my free containers.

The strawberry plant was given to me by a elderly guerrilla gardener that was busted by her condo strata board. I was hired to tear out her extensive (and illegal, apparently) hard work. We quickly became friends as she, too, recognized the riches that abound where ever we look. She pleaded with me to take all her plants rather than toss them on the compost heap. I filled the back of my truck with her entire guerrilla garden and used what I could at home. The rest I took to a friends acreage where he used up everything else. Right now the strawberry flowers and reddening berries on my patio are reminding me of Elizabeth and Her Fantastic Illegal Garden. And my friend, Michael, enjoyed Elizabeth's wonderful perennials in his front yard. Free.

How can I feel rich when I exist on less than most people pay on their mortgages? Lowering ones expectations helps. Separating wants from needs is beneficial. But the most fun for me is recognizing the power of free. Not wanting makes me free. Anyone want (need?) a deck of brand new playing cards? I am willing to share my wealth... free.