#7. Volunteering/Apple Orcharding

I love hybrid hobbies!
Why volunteering? it's the cheapest way to give back! i'm not a particularly...let's say caring person, but I figure, I have the time and means to help out less people, so I should! and so should you! It helps a lot that my employer actively encourages us to volunteer (you can volunteer during the work day and not take vaca, assuming your manager is okay with it). I think it would be cool to work for the Medtronic Foundation. Through Medtronic, I've assembled furniture donated by Target to be given to Bridging (i have pictures of that, but i'm not in them!), been a Bridging "Shopper," been a Reading Buddy to a elementary school student...other stuff too. you get the idea. last MLK day, I signed up to help out at Second Harvest Heartland (we ended up addressing envelopes to donors, not what I expected), and now i get emails from them. on Friday, I got an email saying they urgently needed people to harvest apples at an orchard on Saturday, and the apples would be donated to Second Harvest, who'd get them to hungry Minnesotans. So figured, sure, why not! Amanda from work and my friend Jen wanted to come along too! so at 8 am on a Saturday (earlier than i normally leave the house on a weekday), we set out to Delano! which is about an hour away from St. Paul.
Here's my advice for apple gleaning at 9 am in the middle of October: warm gloves (waterproof would be great); shoes you don't mind getting wet and muddy; layers; sunglasses; a strong back.

We signed the waivers and got our bags.
jen and i don't look so enthused. let's improve this photo...
much better! Then it was a caravan off to the orchard (I was in the lead!).
There were many, many trees. the rows just kept going! i think we mostly picked Regents. when we got hungry, we each sampled one. quite tasty, fresh off the tree! the owner said if the 40 or so of us (and probably 50 in the afternoon) didn't come out to pick the apples, they would have just been wasted. which i find strange, that an orchard would let that profit go to waste...but whatever!
we only were allowed to pick the apples that we could reach (or get to by pulling branches down), but there were still plenty out there. i don't know how many times i emptied my bag.
I must have it!!!
Some random people emptying their bags in a tote. we counted at least 10 full totes when we left!
After all that walking and hauling and thawing out my fingers (but TOTALLY worth it to help people without actually having interact with them), we wuz hungry! back to Apple Jack Orchard for some lunch. it was considerably busier at noon than at 9. can you say CHILDREN?!? EVERYWHERE?!?
my last bite of a "Sloppy Jack," ie, BBQ pulled pork sandwich. i also had an apple pullapart, which i thought i would share with the other girls, but then it was SOOOO good i ate most of it myself!

Next Saturday is Make a Difference Day, so if you are participating in a volunteering activity, register it on the site!