My first glean

On 28^th August I went gleaning in Wingham, Kent.

I had never been on a glean before in my life so wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I arrived at the farm at 11am where we were briefed about what we were going to be doing for the day, and then headed to the fields. I’d never seen a cabbage field before, but it turns out they’re strangely quite captivating. We got down to business and started harvesting the vegetables, starting with broccoli. It was fun to be working outside and meeting people that I probably would not have come into contact with otherwise. After a couple of hours we took a lunch break and once we’d finished eating moved onto cabbages. Not only was it my first time gleaning, but it was also my first time using a machete. I can’t say I was very good at using it, as after about five minutes to attempting I switched to a smaller knife. We harvested cabbages for the rest of the afternoon.

Gleaning has the beauty of being both enjoyable and helpful for the community. That day we collected over a tonne of cabbage and broccoli and ended up filling an entire mini van with produce. That food was then distributed to charities across London that fight against food poverty. Gleaning was really fun, I had a great time and recommend it to all!