This year San Juan 4-H decided to have their Annual Produce
Gleaning day on Oct. 18, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The club members invited another 4-H group to help this year.
Santa Ana 4-H accepted. They were a great help in increasing the
total yield.
This year San Juan 4-H decided to have their Annual Produce Gleaning day on Oct. 18, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The club members invited another 4-H group to help this year. Santa Ana 4-H accepted. They were a great help in increasing the total yield.
“We couldn’t have asked for better weather for the day,” the members wrote in a press release.
The group started off by picking two types of tomatoes.
“Since the tomatoes were going to be packed in boxes, we had to pick the firmest tomatoes,” they wrote. “And as usual, a small tomato fight broke out with the soft ones.”
The 4-H members headed for another field to pick lettuce before picking pumpkins, beets, radishes and bell peppers. Everyone learned about the farming of tomatoes and that tomatoes for the fresh market are usually picked when the tomatoes are green.
The students also learned that radishes are easy to pick because they are in sandy soil and close to the surface.
“We learned that produce picking is a hard, laborious job,” they wrote.
The total produce gleaned from fields in the San Juan Valley was 21 boxes with 902 pounds of produce. That was nearly twice what they had picked last year. They also donated hundreds of plastic grocery bags to help with distribution. To finish the day, they had a potluck BBQ hosted by the Alamedas.
“We did enjoy some of our pickings in a salad,” they wrote. “We had a great time enjoying a great meal, playing and talking for hours.”
