40,000 Swarm Farm to Gather Free Food
November 24th, 2008A few of you have placed large orders with Nitro-Pak. If you needed a reason as to why you might want to keep that information to yourself, take a look at this one.
Via: Washington Post:
A farm couple got a huge surprise when they opened their fields to anyone who wanted to pick up free vegetables left over after the harvest — 40,000 people showed up.
Joe and Chris Miller’s fields were picked so clean Saturday that a second day of gleaning — the ancient practice of picking up leftover food in farm fields — was canceled Sunday. ” ‘Overwhelmed’ is putting it mildly,” Chris Miller said. “People obviously need food.”
She said she expected 5,000 to 10,000 people to show up Saturday to collect free potatoes, carrots and leeks. Instead, an estimated 11,000 vehicles snaked around cornfields and backed up more than two miles. About 30 acres of the 600-acre farm 37 miles north of Denver became a parking lot.
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Miller said they opened the farm to the free public harvest after hearing reports of food being stolen from churches. It was meant as a thank-you for customers.
I read this article this morning, emailed to my sisters under the caption “sign of the times.” I lucked out to hear Mr. Miller interviewed on NPR tonight. I had tears in my eyes listening to Mr. Miller saying how touched he was by everyone saying thank you, and that his biggest fear was that someone would get hurt on his farm! This story really touched my heart. That there were more such as these.