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Pick of the Crop

by Blue Crush | November 23, 2008 at 05:20 pm

121 views | 17 Recommendations | 3 comments

A Platteville, Colorado farm couple say they got a huge surprise when they opened their fields to anyone who wanted to pick free vegetables left over after the harvest.

Forty thousand 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 cancelled Sunday.

About 12 hectares of the 243-hectare farm north of Denver became a parking lot.

"Everybody is so depressed about the economy," said Sandra Justice of Greeley, who works at a technology company. "This was a pure party. Everybody having a a great time getting something for free."

That is, until the Colorado State Patrol showed up. They issued citations to people illegally parked on the side of the road.

Miller said they opened the farm to the free public harvest for the first time this year after hearing reports of food being stolen from churches. It was meant as a thank you for customers.

You can always trust our boys in blue to try and "spoil" a good party.

An estimated 272,000 kilograms of produce was harvested Saturday.

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reno_fog

at 17:45 on November 23rd, 2008

Great story

politisite

at 18:34 on November 23rd, 2008

In the jewish tradition, the other 1/10 of the fields were not to be harvested as they were for the poor who past through. In SC if one were to pick a few ears of corn it could cost ones his life.

The story relates that the economy is in a down slide. The problem really is that Americans have forgotten how to provide the family needs by small gardens as we have become so dependent on the food supply and a trip to the store. Ultimately a down turn in the economy will only help those who go through it. My Grand Parents shared stories of the great depression. Their lives reflected how to store and save for bad times in the future. Our generation has no idea how to save or plan for bad times.