Gleaning the Harvest

 

ATLANTA — As she does every evening, Kelly Callahan walked her dogs through her East Atlanta neighborhood. As in many communities in a city with the 16th-highest foreclosure rate in the nation, there were plenty of empty, bank-owned properties for sale.  She noticed something else. Those forlorn yards were peppered with overgrown gardens and big fruit trees, all bulging with the kind of bounty that comes from the high heat and afternoon thunderstorms that have defined Atlanta’s summer.

So she began picking. First, there was a load of figs, which she intends to make into jam for a cafe that feeds homeless people. Then, for herself, she got five pounds of tomatoes, two kinds of squash and — the real prize — a Sugar Baby watermelon.

“I don’t think of it as stealing,” she said. “These things were planted by a person who was going to harvest them. That person no longer has the ability to. It’s not like the bank people who sit in their offices are going to come out here and pick figs.”

Of course, a police officer who catches her might not agree with Ms. Callahan’s legal assessment. And it would be a rare bank official who would sign off.

But as the world of urban fruit and vegetable harvesting grows, the boundaries around where to grow and pick produce are becoming more elastic.

Over the last few years, in cities from Oakland, Calif., to Clemson, S.C., well-intentioned foraging enthusiasts have mapped public fruit trees and organized picking parties. Volunteers descend on generous homeowners who are happy to share their bounty, sometimes getting a few jars of preserves in return.

There are government efforts to turn abandoned land into food, too. In Multnomah County, Ore., officials offer property that has been seized for back taxes to community and governmental organizations for gardens.

But with more and more properties in foreclosure and large stretches of vacant lots available in some cities, a new, guerrilla-style harvest is taking shape.

Robby Astrove works with Concrete Jungle, a fruit-foraging organization in Atlanta that in 2009 began building a database of untended fruit and nut trees on commercial and public land. The group donates most of the food to agencies that feed the hungry.

Although Mr. Astrove and his colleagues have harvested abandoned community gardens and he has planted pear and fig trees on empty commercial property, the organization cautions volunteers against trespassing and does not pick fruit on foreclosed properties.

Still, he thinks it is a great idea, especially for cities like Atlanta, where one in 50 homes is in foreclosure. Already, he said, there is an underground network among the homeless who work the gardens and trees around vacant homes, he said.

 

photo & story courtesy of - The New York Times 

What does God's Story teach us about gleaning?

God's Story is filled with examples of amazingly creative ways to allow the Kingdom of God to break into our world in all of its beauty and power.  One interesting example, inspired by today's news story, is "gleaning".  Simply put, gleaning is recognizing that because the land, rain, sun, bees, butterflies, manure, mulch, and all the other natural ingredients that make for an abundant harvest are all gifts to us from a loving Creator God, we should respond to those gifts by allowing our harvest to be a gift to someone else.  In other words, "freely we recieve, freely we give" (Matthew 10:8).

Where in your city is there a harvest to glean?  Where is God's abundant Kingdom growing wild, ripe for the picking, ready to be shared with those in need?  Where is there a field of grace for those mired in guilt and shame, where is there a storehouse of loving acceptance for the outcast, are there untapped reserves of compassion for the suffering just waiting to be unleased?

God's Kingdom is breaking into to our world in so many ways.  Our task is simply to find it and share it.