Today the girls and I had the chance to participate in a pretty cool project with some people from our church. We all met at an apple orchard where our pastor, Jim, talked to us about the concept of gleaning. In ancient cultures, and particularly in the Bible, gleaning was the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields after they had been harvested, and it was an act done by the poor. In our case, the church had gotten permission to go through a large section of an apple orchard and glean the good apples that had fallen to the ground. The apples were collected, then they were taken to two Loudoun County facilities that distribute food to the needy. 
Nina listened pretty intently while Pastor Jim talked to us about gleaning.
Then we were off to comb the orchard floor for as many good apples as we could carry in our bags.
I was really surprised how many perfectly good apples were on the ground. The girls learned quickly how to determine which ones were good.
In the end, our group finished with a ton of apples. It was a lot of fun as well as a good experience for us to take part in an ancient custom that really was able to help out some of the people in our community.
Nina listened pretty intently while Pastor Jim talked to us about gleaning.
Then we were off to comb the orchard floor for as many good apples as we could carry in our bags.
I was really surprised how many perfectly good apples were on the ground. The girls learned quickly how to determine which ones were good.
In the end, our group finished with a ton of apples. It was a lot of fun as well as a good experience for us to take part in an ancient custom that really was able to help out some of the people in our community.
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