You know the old joke about not leaving your car windows open during zucchini season, lest you find your neighbor's surplus squash filling your vehicle? When I moved to New England in the 1980s I soon learned that this was no laughing matter. A few dozen zuke seeds naively planted in the spring, and by summer I was up to my eyeballs in squash. Unlocked cars, front porches and even roadside mailboxes (federal offense, notwithstanding) were fair game in the quest to rid myself of these prolific green monsters.

The decades have passed, and the times have changed. This year's seemingly perpetual rains have wreaked havoc on the zucchini harvest, but many home gardeners and farmers still find themselves with more bounty than they can eat, put up, or sell. Before you pawn off the excess on your unsuspecting neighbors, why not share it with members of the community who truly need and will appreciate this fresh and wholesome food?

If you are a home gardener who can't possibly make use of everything you grow, consider giving the surplus to one of the many organizations in the community that serve people in need of a little extra help. In Rutland The Open Door Mission has a soup kitchen that serves three meals a day, every single day of the year. They need, welcome and make great use of the extra produce from home gardens. There are also women's shelters, Head Start programs, and senior centers that would gladly use your garden overflow to make healthy meals for the people they serve. And don't forget the local food pantries, which have seen a huge increase in people in need, with no corresponding increase in funding. While many Vermont food pantries do not have enough (or any) refrigeration to keep perishable produce on hand, most will welcome a small but steady stream of garden goodies to offer their customers. (Calling ahead of time to find out where, when and how much to drop off is always a good idea.)

If your home garden produces more than you can (literally) chew, imagine our area farms. For many farmers, their fields yield more produce than they can sell at market, more than they can even harvest. And while tilling under these unpicked crops enhances the soil, most farmers would rather see this food get to people in need. Many donate their unsold produce to shelters and food shelves, but harvesting the surplus food takes more time and person-power than most farmers can afford.

With food in the fields, and hungry people in the community, the question of how to bring the two together is key. Enter Julie Barber of Dutchess Farms, Rutland County's entrée into gleaning. And in South Barre we have The Vermont Foodbank's Salvation Farms Gleaning Network. Salvation Farms aims to replicate statewide the gleaning project established by co-founders Theresa Snow and Jen O'Donnell that rescued produce from farm fields and shared these gleans with the people of the Lamoille Valley region.

Gleaning is, by no means, a new concept. Defined as the collection of food from fields already harvested, gleaning has been around for centuries. Several passages of the Bible tell farmers to leave crops in their fields to be gathered by their hungry neighbors: "And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corner of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleaning of thy harvest; thou shalt leave them for the poor, and for the stranger" (Leviticus 23:22).

The Shakers planted larger gardens than necessary so that the extra produce could be enjoyed by their neighbors. More recently, Plant A Row for the Hungry, a grass-roots effort of the Garden Writers Association, encourages all home gardeners and farmers to plant extra crops for distribution to the community.

But back to our local efforts. Julie Barber, originally from North Carolina, is the consummate farmer. Working for Dutchess Farms in Castleton, she sees both the potential and the need for gleaning. With the support of Stephen Chamberlain, owner of Dutchess Farms, and resources from the Vermont Foodbank's Salvation Farms Gleaning Network, she made the commitment to begin a gleaning project right here in Rutland County. Off to a great start, Barber has organized gleaning crews and distributed food to the Rutland Community Cupboard food pantry.

Any successful gleaning project requires, well, gleaners – people who are willing to volunteer their time to harvest farm crops and deliver them to recipient organizations. When I had lunch with Barber last week, I asked her what she needed the most. "People," she replied. "People who can come to the farm and carefully and respectfully pick crops."

That is where I come in. And that is where you come in. Yes, we can all help increase the health and food security of our community by volunteering to become gleaners – with Barber at Dutchess Farms, or by signing up with a Salvation Farms group to glean at a farm close to your home. By gleaning you get the satisfaction of knowing that you are doing something to help your community, as well as getting a closer connection with local farmers and the precious land they work. To sign up to glean with Barber, email her at julesbnc@yahoo.com.

My days of sneaking an extra zucchini (or six) into parked cars are over. This year our home garden deliberately contains more produce than our two-person household needs, and the rest is being shared – in broad daylight – with members of our community.

Carol Tashie lives in Rutland City and tries hard to find a balance between what is possible and what is impossible to ignore. Her column explores ways ordinary people make the planet a healthier, peaceful and more just place to live. She can be reached at carolweeklyplanet@yahoo.com.

ON THE NET


Vermont Foodbank, South Barre

www.vtfoodbank.org


Salvation Farms Gleaning Network, Vermont Foodbank

www.salvationfarms.org


Open Door Mission, Rutland

http://vermontpet.com/mission


Garden Writers Association

www.gardenwriters.org/par