40,000 Pick Free Vegetables At Colorado Farm

A farm couple got a huge surprise when they opened their fields to anyone who wanted to pick up free vegetables left over after the harvest -- 40,000 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 canceled Sunday.
"Overwhelmed is putting it mildly," Chris Miller said. "People obviously need food."

She said she expected 5,000 to 10,000 people would show up Saturday to collect free potatoes, carrots and leeks. Instead, an estimated 11,000 vehicles snaked around cornfields and backed up more than two miles. About 30 acres of the 600-acre farm 37 miles north of Denver became a parking lot.

Some people parked their cars along two nearby highways to take to the field with sacks, wagons and barrels.

"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."

Justice and her mother and son picked 10 bags of vegetables.

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.

Farm operations manager Dave Patterson said that in previous years the Millers allowed schoolchildren and some church groups to come to the farm during the fall to harvest their own food.

He estimated some 600,000 pounds of produce was harvested Saturday.

Weld County sheriff's deputies helped direct traffic and the Colorado State Patrol issued citations for cars illegally parked on the side of the road.

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Comments

[karela]

That was a really nice thing to do. And the cops should have been helpful and for once not been writing parking tickets out to people who needed food. Geesh!

[LiberalBuzz]

Too bad all farmers don't do this.

Be great if they did.

[thecanadian]

Congratulations to this wonderful couple!

[greencowgirl]

Americans are finally figuring out that picking veggies ain't so bad. Maybe we can get free labor from Americans instead of hiring illegal farm workers from Mexico.

Just saying.

[karela]

Back breaking, gut wrenching work. You first!

[mlaiuppa]

It's a shame the Colorado State patrol could not get into the spirit of the season or the Miller's gift and do as the Weld Sheriff's dept did; help with parking and crowd control. Instead the have to model the meanest of spirits and issue citations to people so desperate for food that they spend a day gleaning the fields with their children. I only hope that some judge somewhere dismisses all of these citations and the officers responsible get a dressing down appropriate to their act. I'm sure their time could better be spent apprehending those committing acts that truly harm the public, illegal parking NOT being one of them. Go chase a drunk driver!

[sonoffestus]

What, we got Socialist farmers or worse Commies. This country is just going to hell.
Can you imagine, feeding folks for free.

Good for the farmers. Most farmers know things ain't easy, and are use to helping each other.

As for the cops, give me break. Maybe they didn't get their free coffees and donuts that morning.

[BearsLeft]

The Miller Farm sells its produce direct to consumers at 42 farmers markets here in Colorado every week. My wife swears by the quality of their veggies and seeks them out at the local farmer's market every Tuesday. Great people with great local products. This is the answer to shipping produce halfway across the globe with dwindling fossil fuels and horrendous carbon footprints. Not to mention quality and health concerns. We have to start providing for our own needs here in the USA.

[Bluewaterjack]

Stephen: The blessing on our house was also similar and was today.

'Bless this food to our use and us to thy services, we are thankful for your small mercies, and ever mindful of the needs of others and those less fortunate than ourselves.­'

AND bless those Millers with an extra dose of love and good karma this year.

PS: I wonder if Rush Limbaugh thinks God is communist.

[Wilburrr]

Do you actually think that Rush Limbaugh thinks about God?

[BSERIUS]

He does donate and raise millions more for leukemia and other charities than Barack, Biden Gore and Maddow and Olberman combined

[EndangeredJackalope]

Wrote parking citations? For broke people collecting free food? What bums! Were they local cops it might be a minor fine, but a state trooper ticket is probably upwards of $70..... weak

[Tom95134]

This is significant because usually it is only the poor and indigent that come into the fields to clean after the harvest. However, the interesting this I saw in the story was this line, "He estimated some 600,000 pounds of produce was harvested Saturday." This means that after the harvest was finished and the mechanized harvesters were done with their job some 300 TONS of food was left to rot in the fields.

[BearsLeft]

According to local reports, it was more a case of a bumper crop this year that they couldn't sell.

[frantaylor]

Welcome to the new global economy

[Stephen]

Yay Millers! What a great thing to do.

I have to wonder at two events recently in the news. This one and the child safe-harbor law in Nebraska that had people leaving whole families of kids at the hospitals. Are these peeks over the fence at the quiet desperation of some people in America?

My grandfather's standard "Grace" always said before our Thanksgiving meal began: "Make us ever mindul of the needs of others..."