July with GleanSLO

Summer stats and updates from your favorite local food rescue group
 

During the month of July, our glean teams rescued 9,211 lbs of fresh produce to be connected to those in need throughout the county! That translates to over 36,000 individual servings of fresh produce of apples, cabbage, cantaloupe, lemons, peaches, plums, pluots, oranges grapefruits, strawberries, and more!
 

Calling all North County gleaners!
GleanSLO wants YOU to be a NoCo harvest leader!

Our program is based out of the city of SLO (here, at the SLO food bank), which can make it difficult to glean from some of our neighbors up North (we're looking at you, Paso Robles). But we're hoping to grow our North County gleaning capacity, which is where you come in!
If you live in North County, and you love what we do, consider becoming a GleanSLO harvest leader and help us spread the Gleaning wealth- Contact Willy at ewilson@slofoodbank.org for more info on becoming a harvest leader and expanding our GleanSLO reach!

Gleaning Goodness
Great gleaning moments from the last month with GleanSLO

Strawberries at CP

The strawberry season at Cal Poly has wrapped up for the year, and we are SO grateful to the Cal Poly Strawberry Center for their immense generosity the last few months, allowing us to harvest over 1,500 lbs of strawberries to be distributed to those in need. We are so grateful to be able to provide not only healthy and fresh, but absurdly tasty produce to those in need in our county. 
 

Bread Bike x GleanSLO

Last month, our friends over at Bread Bike hosted a fundraiser during one of their pop up events at High St. Deli! Donating all the proceeds from their plum tea cake made with locally gleaned plums, they raised over $250 to help keep GleanSLO doing what we do best ~ Thanks Mariah and Sam! 


SLO Saturday Farmers Market

Over the last month, the crew at the SLO Saturday farmers market has collected over 1,700 lbs of beautiful fresh produce, and this past week they pulled in a whopping 662 lbs! All this local produce will be distributed to those in need through Agape Church and others each week. Thank you local farmers, for all you do!

If You Love GleanSLO, You Might Love This
Information and inspiration surrounding the local food system and beyond

All stone fruits are drupes, however not all drupes are stone fruits!
 

Did you know that about 75% of strawberries in the US are grown in California? Or that they are not actually considered berries, botanically speaking? 
Strawberry plants are actually a part of the Rose family (Rosaceae family and Fragaria genus) and there are over 20 species of strawberry plants.
Biologically speaking, strawberry plants are considered 'forbs'. Bet you hadn't heard that word yet! A forb is an herbaceous flowering plant that does not have significant amounts of woody tissue above the ground, but is still vascular, meaning it has lignified (woody) tissues for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant.

For more info on these these (not really) berries check our strawberryplants.org!

Inspiration and recipes for making the most of your seasonal produce

For that time of the year when your tomato plants are heaviest(or tomatoes are on sale at the market): tomato & roasted garlic pie

Speaking from experience, this might be the best cucumber dish in the entire world: spicy Indian cucumber salad

For summer snacking on hot days: smokey eggplant dip

And for anyone "suffering" from an excess of fruit: bake up some shortcakes and put that fruit to good use.