A part of The Queen's Garden: Oral Histories of the Piedmont Foodshed
Objectives of The Queen's Garden:
What is Gleaning?
Farm Waste
“The Queen’s Garden Oral History Project” seeks to collect the stories of those who grow, cultivate, produce, and distribute fresh food in the greater Charlotte region. Our approach is two-fold. First, we will explore both the rewards and challenges of those who currently and historically have participated in and helped to create the region’s foodshed. By capturing and documenting the oral histories of farmers, gardeners, gleaners, and other organizations, we hope to portray the sometimes unexpected and creative ways that local food production and distribution has occurred and changed over time. Second and relatedly, we intend to explore how participants sustain themselves and their operations in the face of changing economic, political, and environmental challenges, and seek their vision for how all of Charlotte’s populations can meet their food-needs in the future.
Gleaning is traditionally the act of recovering or gathering left over produce from the fields after a harvest. However, you can also glean fish, meat, and leftover grain as well. Organizations, such as the Society of St. Andrews rely on the produce that they get from farmer's allowing them to glean to help get those in need access to fresh healthy food.
Farmers have extremely strict guidelines on what is and is not marketable, and there is often a great deal left behind in the fields that is perfectly edible, but unmarketable. The 2016 ReFED report highlighted that there is over 9.2 billion kilograms of food wasted at the farm level in the US. One North Carolina farm's waste had almost 42% of their produce left unmarketable but recoverable in the fields.