Gleaning, You Should Do It!

This summer is proving to be fruitful. We've collected blue and pink berries from our garden, and when we go on neighborhood walks the produce is abundant! Most recently, my son and I were catching some local Eevee and we happened upon our local apple tree. It took me two years to figure out that kids weren't throwing apples at our yard, and they were actually falling and rolling downhill from this tree. This year I decided to make pie. I hate wasting food, and pie is a perfect solution for unwanted apples. They weren't sweet, but they were crisp, and I was happy with the results.

If you're my neighbor, reading this, please forgive me. You let your apples rot in your yard, and my children need sooo much food. Thank you! Dear readers, you can see above that I made an amazing caramel apple pie crumble. I would share the recipe, but I honestly combined information from Pinterest with information I already held in my heart. The best part of making this apple pie was using the new tool my wonderful husband bought me.

I can now core and peel apples in a hot second. I may not have a microwave or coffee maker, but gosh darn it, I can make recipes with apples in a jiffy. I sent the kids up the road to get the neglected apples, and also to gather our local weed. Blackberries!

My kids have already gathered what probably amounts to $10 of blackberries, or more. We froze some for smoothies, and they have been eating them none stop. These berries and apples would have hopefully been eaten by animals, but in reality I know they would have rotted on the vine. What a waste !?! We are fortunate enough to live in a place that grows natural foods we love. If no one is gathering them, shouldn't we? Shouldn't you? Don't let your local edible foods go bad. Grab them, eat them, make sure they don't go to waste.