The Gleaning

Posted on by Thor

The Society of Saint Andrew organized a gleaning at Long and Scott Farms North of Lake Apopka, Florida. I had actually driven past the farm multiple times this past month.  Mark DeMaio let me know about the event.

Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops in the field after harvest. During harvest, there is food that is left or missed because it does not meet store standards for uniformity. The gleaned fruit is shared with nearby families who might otherwise go without fresh food.

Rebecca Brockman coordinated the event. This seemed like a home school field trip allowing the kids to pick unharvested cucumbers. Rebecca pointed out that all over the state of Florida, over 8.7 million pounds of food was collected for the hungry. The organization has served over 5 million  fresh food meals and they have been gleaning in Florida since 1995. We all had to wash our hands with germicidal soup to be sure we didn’t bring pathogens out into the fields. After Barbara’s introduction we headed out to the field. Barbara drove most of the kids in the pick up and I walked over with several others.

Everyone was given large yellow IKEA bags and then the harvesting began. I stated sketching immediately as they leaned over to pick cucumbers and slowly walked down the field away from me. Once the sketch was done, I walked to the truck and picked up an IKEA bag for myself. A mom and daughter were having plenty of luck finding cucumbers in the last two trenches in the filed. Since they were now harvesting experts I took their advice and stayed at the edge of the field.

Cucumbers are hard to see. There is a thick mat of foliage from the vines which is hard to see through. I started harvesting like a blind man feeling around for anything solid. I found a few hand grenade sized cucumbers and then I finally found a full sized foot long. I held it over my head and shouted in delight. I don’t think anyone noticed. It was a personal victory.

The mom had the idea that there might be plenty of unharvested cucumbers back where everyone began. I though that was a great idea so I back tracked to where I had been seated to sketch, and dedicated myself to harvesting down one or two rows. I found plenty of small cucumbers and the occasional thick and long prize. Part of me felt like I wasn’t harvesting like a pro. My IKEA bag was filling up with small fruit.

Regardless I turned in my IKEA bag. And everyone was thankful. In the pick up truck people were packaging the cucumbers in red mesh bags for distribution. I was told I could bring a bag home, but I felt I had only harvested enough to warrant taking one cucumber home. Back at the studio, I cut it up and put it in a salad. It was absolutely delicious. Whenever I am settled enough to start a garden, I plan to grow cucumbers.

The Perceid Meteor Shower..

Posted on by Thor

The Perseid Meteor shower is supposed to be the brightest meteor shower of the year. According to NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke, the Perseids are perhaps the most popular meteor shower of the year. Typical rates are about 80 meteors an hour, but in outburst years (such as in 2016) the rate can be between 150-200 meteors an hour. The meteor shower’s actual peak was around 1 p.m. on August 12, which means that the night before and the night after will both have good rates; Cooke said the show would be slightly better in the predawn hours of Aug. 12, but that there would be a decent show both nights.

Comet Swift-Tuttle is the largest object known to repeatedly pass by Earth;
its nucleus is about 16 miles wide. It last passed
nearby Earth during its orbit around the sun in 1992, and the next time
will be in 2126. But in the meantime, the Earth passes through the dust and debris it leaves behind every year,
creating the annual Perseid meteor shower.

Pam Schwartz and I traveled to Magnolia Park on Lake Apopka in the hope of getting away from some of Orlando’s light pollution. We arrived at the lake side park just before midnight. Several people were leaving the boat launch area in their SUV and they shouted out that a big gator was lurking there. We found a spot on a dock and waited patiently, seated on my artist stools..

In my nocturne I could clearly see the orange glow of the city light pollution on the horizon. I was afraid that this might hinder our chances of seeing meteors. Another drawback was that it was cloudy. After an hour of sitting on the dock, the clouds started to part and thin out. While I was staring at my sketch, Pam shouted out that she saw a meteor. I stopped sketching and stared at the night sky.

In the reeds near by two beady eyes stared back at me. It was a huge gator watching us and waiting for his chance to lunge. It was kind of hard to look at the sky with those reflective lenses staring at us. I finally did see a streak of light on the horizon. It was just a flash out of the corner of my eye, but I saw it. On a different occasion I saw a meteor that was huge and seemed to linger in the sky like  an open wound. If there were a hundred meteors and hour on this night they must have been only active when it was cloudy. What I remember far more vividly are those ravenous glowing doll like eyes. We left shortly after I saw my one meteor. Although the gator might have wanted blood, it was the mosquitoes that feasted the most that night.