Jess Chandler

Today, my family picked some apples down in South Kitsap – on some property where the owners just couldn’t pick it any longer. I thought I would be going alone, but it was so much fun with the whole family. The kids had a great time, and they learned another way to help their community.

Doris (dorisforfoodbank@aol.com) contacted the owners and got permission for us to come out there. I wrote about Doris’s efforts last week after I read her story in the Kitsap Sun.

A friend of mine brought an apple ladder, and we picked a trunk-full of apples that will be going to the Bremerton Foodline tomorrow morning.

Thanks to Doris for her hard work, and thanks to the owners who let us take this good fruit to the Food Banks. Keep up the sharing!!

The Bremerton Foodline served 16,878 food boxes to 3,872 families in 2008 and had served 10,670 food boxes at the end of August 2009.

I didn’t know about gleaning before I read the “So Far, Little Enthusiasm for a Kitsap Glean Scene” in today’s Kitsap Sun.

It turns out that one woman, Doris Worland, has taken up the cause to not waste good food. She noticed unpicked, ripe fruit going to waste on local trees, and she TOOK ACTION! She is working to get permission, pick the fruit, and deliver it to local food banks. What a great and honorable cause!

Her initial efforts to get more people involved have gone unheeded as residents with the unwanted fruit don’t want to bother with picking it which is why it is sitting on the trees in the first place.

I have volunteered to help whenever, and (if you have time, or unwanted fruit/veggies) you can too.
Contact Doris Worland at (253) 851-4303 or (253) 970-2047, or
e-mail Dorisforfoodbank@aol.com.

Have you ever wanted to get fresh from the farm eggs, vegetables, milk, meat, fruit or nuts? You know you just rolled your eyes and said, “Of course…but it is too complicated.” I agree. It is too complicated – especially when you can just drive to your local grocer (or giant chain grocer, whatever) and get everything at once.

But, if you knew where the farms were in your area, and you knew who served which farmer’s market, wouldn’t it be easier? Going to the farmer’s market and not finding what you want is frustrating, and it discourages you from trying to buy local. I know. I have been there. You go to the farmer’s market, and there are maybe two stands that are selling farm goods and twenty that are hawking crafts and other non-farm goodies.

Well, your state university extension may have generated a farm map to help you. The Kitsap County Farm Map lists each farm in the area, what they produce, and how to buy it from them (do you have to call, go to the farm, or meet them at a farmer’s market?). How cool is that?