Tomatoes donated to the Prairie Gleaners Society from a local greenhouse waits to be processed. The Prairie Gleaners have built up a strong relationship with local producers to take "misfit" veggies which can be processed and turned into dehydrated food stuffs to help with overseas aid.


Prairie Gleaners cont. from page 47


“If you asked any one of them, a very common answer would be: They get it,” says Smith. “They want to do something worthwhile in retirement rather than sitting around Tim Hortons wasting time. A lot of them like the idea of being able to contribute in a meaningful way, and they can do that here. It’s also quite a social time when they are all out here. Anybody and everybody is welcome.”


Ken Wuitchik‘16 Congratulations Ken


on another outstanding year. Ken would like to say thank you to all his


loyal clientele and all the best to them and their families in 2017. Ken has been employed at Big M for 24 years.


www.bigmford.ca • 1312 Transcanada Way 403-527-4406


50


The second thought Smith has is for the local greenhouses and members of the farming community who continue to provide, free-of-charge, all the produce his volunteers need to carry on their work.


“We have a relationship with a number of growers,” explains Smith. “With Red Hat Co-op, a number of the greenhouse growers and different vegetable farmers in the area, and we have never had to go begging. In fact, it has almost been the reverse when we have been offered culled vegetables. There is such an abundance of that in this area that we are doing our best just to capture a small amount of what’s available.


“These producers would much rather see this put to good use rather than have to dump it or plough it back into the ground; whatever they have to contend with to dispose of this beautiful food, which for them is unmarketable.”


The Prairie Gleaners Society collects weekly from their regular producers, who box the produce and set it aside for them. Most of what they collect are tomatoes and peppers from what amounts to just two greenhouses out the dozens in the


area. The Gleaners also have other large vegetable producers and the Bow Island Bean Plant who give them product on a regular basis. Altogether they collect a huge diversity of produce: Cabbage, onions, carrots, green beans, radishes, zucchini, potatoes, peppers, corn and split or broken dried beans.


“We never know where it’s all going to come from,” confirms Smith, “but on a consistent basis the bulk of what we get are from the greenhouse industry; so Red Hat Co-op and a few other major vegetable growers in the area. We maintain an ongoing relationship with a few producers rather than try to gather what we need willy nilly. And that seems to work best for us and those producers as well.”


Smith explains how the next stages of the process work after the vegetables are collected.


“We have our large, walk-in cooler for the perishables we need to preserve. And then all the vegetables are processed. We take the cores out and remove stems and all the inedible parts. And then it’s all diced and made ready for dehydration.


“Over the course of the year we will build a reserve of a wide variety of the vegetables we get, and then usually in January/ February we start to individually bag them in three pound bags with all the different vegetables mixed together along with the protein, such as the dried beans. These are then heat sealed, boxed and shipped out to various aid organizations we work with for transport and distribution overseas.”


41240878 • 03/28/17


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