Harvest Against Hunger rescues a staggering amount of produce from Washington’s farm fields and fruit trees to nourish hungry families. But it never works alone.
On a clear afternoon in late summer, a dozen volunteers meet Benji Astrachan at River Run Farm in Sequim, Washington, a small town set between the snowcapped peaks of Olympic National Park and the Salish Sea that connects to the Pacific. He hands out green-handled harvest knives and leads the group onto one of the 100-acre farm’s many fields alongside the Dungeness River. The land is still green with bush bean plants, though harvest crews have already come through. Today’s volunteer turnout includes a few newcomers, so Astrachan explains the task before them — unearth the left-behind beans that hide beneath the leaves. As they set to work, the scene resembles an unhurried Easter egg hunt.
Afterward, in a nearby cauliflower field, the group circles around as Astrachan demonstrates how to push the leaves back and run the knife underneath each cauliflower head to cut the stem. Next, he flips the vegetable over to finish trimming. “You want to remove any florets that appear buggy or rotting,” he says.
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