glaner

Writers and artists know all about gleaning, or le glanage--they regularly glean for ideas and inspiration! Here's Robyn Mixon's painting "Chez Domaine Rouge-Bleu." (See Robyn's photo farther on.)

glaner (glah-nay) verb

   to pick, to gather, to glean

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Audio File: Listen to Jean-Marc read the following text: Download MP3 or Wav file

Quand vous ferez la moisson dans votre pays, vous ne moissonnerez pas vos champs jusqu'au bord, et vous ne glanerez pas ce qui pourra rester de votre moisson; vous laisserez tout cela au pauvre et à l'immigré. - Leviticus 23:22

When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. Leave it for the poor and the foreigners living among you.

 

A Day in a French Life... by Kristin Espinasse

In the dramatic opening scene of her memoir The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls is riding in the back of a New York taxi, wondering whether she has overdressed for the party to which she is headed, when she sees something that knocks the wind right out of her Park Avenue sails.

Out there on the curbside, an older woman wearing rags is rooting through a dumpster. On closer look, the garbage picker is Jeannette's own mother! 

As I read the page-turner memoir, I could only imagine how a daughter's heart seized up on seeing her intelligent, artistic, and once athletic mother resort to rooting through the trash. What had brought her to this? And, more curiously, why was the waste picker smiling?

It wasn't until I saw the fascinating documentary, The Gleaners and I, by French filmmaker Agnès Varda, that I began to see this touching scene quite differently, and even to recall a few gleaning episodes of my own. Before writing about those, I will share some of the eloquent descriptions I gathered from viewers' reactions to The Gleaners:

... a wonderful documentary that reminds us of how much we produce and waste in the world and how the disenfranchised (and artistic) make use of that waste to survive... The characters Varda encounters are equally compelling and interestingly are not portrayed as whiny or blameful of others for their situations: they simply state how they live and we are left impressed with their ingenuity. (anonymous)

One of my favorite scenes in the film is when we are introduced to a wizened Chinese man in Paris living at home among a heap of dumpster gleanings. He has taken in a boarder—a happy-go-lucky black man who hunts the day long for discarded food and items that he himself will repair and give away to those less fortunate than himself. "Somebody might need this," the ragpicker says. Evenings, the Chinese man will cook up the dumpster chicken in one of the ovens that his resourceful roommate has brought home. As the men prepare to dine together, seated on crooked chairs and ever amazed by their "fortune", I have to reach over and hit the pause button. Have you ever seen such sweet faces, such sparkling eyes, than on these two lovely men who care for one another and for others? 

In another scene, we observe a clean-cut wirey man stooping here and there as he scours the market stalls in Paris at the end of market day. Here and there he pops a broken piece of celery or apple or lettuce into his mouth... "Beta carotene! Vitamin K! I'm a biology major," he explains, adding that though he earns a salary, he still needs to eat and by the way, he's vegetarian! He admits that cheese is a little more difficult to find, but there's plenty of tossed out bread. We later learn that though he holds a scientific diploma, this biologist chooses to sell papers outside the train station. In a touching "who'd have thunk it?" scene, we see the same garbage picker volunteering his time, each evening, to teach refugees English. His carefully illustrated blackboards featuring, among other objects, a handdrawn bike and its phonetic word equivalent, attest as much to his selfless and caring soul as to his professionalism and skill.    

There are several other heart-awakening moments in which Agnès Varda steadies her lens on the outcasts who in turn teach us more about the art of living than we will ever glean from the pages of any New York Times bestseller on the subject. The rag-wearing, sometimes toothless characters could write volumes on the subject. Meantime they have more meaningful pursuits: getting by, while managing to smile at life. 

As for my own dumpster days—as a priviledged child—I'd root unselfconsciously through the trash bin (one we shared with the neighbor), ever amazed at the ongoing source of riches (in this case--cans of Hamm's beer which could be recycled for cash after stomping the cans flat!). Our neighbor, a single, middle-aged woman, regularly replenished the trash bin with this blatantly underestimated source of income! I began to feel sorry about her loss, which to me related to her pocket book and not her liver health (I had no idea that all those cans equalled addiction). 

I regret losing the desire to salvage things (publicly, at least, though the occasional foray through a stranger's trash still happens), but I am grateful to live here in France, where gleaning is alive and well and rooted deeply in the culture! How many times during family outings has an uncle or a cousin or a grandma stooped to pick up a tumbled down apricot or a chestnut, or paused to uproot a lonely asparagus or a bunch of herbs from the edge of a neighbor's yard. "Have you seen what they charge for this at the markets?" my in-laws shake their heads. Soon they'll make up a fresh batch of herbs de provence--more fragrant and delicious than can be found on any supermarket aisle. 

When my husband returned from the States after his multi-city wine tour he brought me an unexpected surprise: two charming rush-bottom chairs!

"I found them in the airport parking lot," Jean-Marc explained, "beside the dumpster." I admit, if he had brought those home 15 years ago--as a consolation gift for his two week absence, I might have been hugely disappointed! Nowadays, I don't want the ill-fitting T-shirt that he had quickly rung up at a pricy airport trap shop. (I'd rather have a couple of bars of chocolate, or, in this case, some adorable chairs!) 

Each time I look at the chairs, I feel the same kind of affection one feels when looking at some of the characters in Agnès Varda's documentary. They are quirky. They are imperfect. They are charming. They are lovely. And, as one of the men in the film said, "they are needed."

 *** 

I hope you will enjoy Agnès Varda's The Gleaners and I as much as I have. Read more about it here. (View the first part of the documentary at the end of this post.)

 If you haven't read her memoir, order Jeannette Wall's Glass Castle. You won't be able to put it down!

Related posts: Read about Abbey Pierre and his mission to care for the homeless. Click here.
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 Le Coin Commentaires
Please share your own gleanings on "the gleaning life". Will you admit to dumpster diving? Or do you find it repulsing? What sort of finds have you dragged home (from a field or a trash can or a market stall -- apples? bread? parsley? (one homeless man in the video called the parsley he found "a lovely bouquet"). Thanks for sharing your thoughts here in the comments box.

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I could watch this video again and again -- which means it is a welcome addition to one's video library! Don't forget to order a copy of Agnès Varda's The Gleaners and I (click here), the DVD includes a "Two years later" segment, in which some of the characters in the documentary are revisited. The documentary makes a thoughtful gift for any Francophile or for anyone interested in art or movie making or frugality or recycling. Order it here.

 Helpful Customer Reviews:

Film maker Agnes Varda turns her camera lenses toward modern day gleaners--the poor, the dispossessed, the ecologically aware and the alienated--to paint a new but still somewhat romantic image of those follow along behind the parade of life, picking through its remains. - Jean E. Pouliot

I enjoyed seeing parts of France not normally seen on the screen or by tourists. In fact in some ways this documentary could serve as a kind of travelog so widely does Varda and her camera travel about the French countryside and cities. - Dennis Littrell

This isn't just about people surviving as scavengers. That's some of it, but it's also about people making art from left objects/trash, and some have philosophical views on the waste our society produces. - Wendell

 Click here to order The Gleaners and I

To my left are artist Robyn Mixon and her husband, Al, who joined us for the May 16th wine-tasting. 

The next wine-tastings are on these dates. Email me to reserve your seat beneath the Mulberry tree:

June 26th at 4pm
July 3rd at 4pm
July 16th at 4pm 

 ***

Summer is here. Celebrate this with a glass of Rosé from our Rouge-Bleu vineyard !

 Please forward this edition to a gleaner or a future gleaner!

 

 

Comments

[JULES GREER - PUERTO VALLARTA, MEXICO]

Dearest Kristi,

WOW!!! It's so nice to see Robyn's beautiful work here on your blog - how thoughtful of Robyn to paint a moment of time that you can treasure forever. Don't forget to FRAME - we can take care of this when I visit.

I am constantly amazed at the amount of work and thoughtfulness you put in your posts Kristi - your story today is lovely...reminds me of all the wonderful days living in Les Arcs when I was addicted to the garbage bins in the village. I remember sitting at a cafe one late afternoon during the harvest month of September - it seemed like every farmer in the area would parade through the village with their little red tractor pulling a cart full of grapes....one afternoon one of the farmers stopped right in front of my table, jumped off of his tractor and presented me with an armful of grapes. I was so surprised and honored to be able to share in this special harvest moment. This is years before Kristi and Jean-Marc moved to the vineyard so this was my first introduction to the lovely grapes of Provence. I will never forget that special moment, I can see it all right now in my minds eye...the joy in the farmers face as he shared his labor with 'the American.'

P.s. Where is my bracelet - the PARIS METRO - I'm hoping that will be my Birthday present.

XOXO

MOM

[Julie F in St. Louis, MO]

Oh, Kristin. You got me all excited for a photo of those two chairs. I have to admit I'm a fool for wooden chairs on the cheap at estate sales (and a garage full of them to prove it). There's a brocante here in Dijon on Saturday and I will have to find something easier to transport home than chairs would be.

[Bill in St. Paul]

One of the best times and places to go gleaning around here is around the University of Minnesota at the end of a semester (especially, Spring semester) when college students have to be out of their rentals (apartments, houses, rooms, whatever). You can pick up all sorts of furniture, refrigerators (thrown out because nobody wants to clean them!), old computer CRTs, etc. I'm passed dumpster diving as I now need to unload all those "treasures" that I collected years ago - you only need so many coffee tables!

[JULES GREER - PUERTO VALLARTA, MEXICO]

DID I REMEMBER to say how beautiful Robyn looks in your photo - I seem to remember seeing photo's of Robyn and Al in past visits to your vineyard...you get to meet so many wonderful people, what a lucky girl you are - looks like you are so happy in this photo.

XOXO

MOM

[Debbie Ambrous]

I enjoyed this story very much! I have a beautiful glass vase with only a tiny crack at the top that I found in the trash. It has a big bouquet of gardenias in it now.

[Barbara Lynch]

Bonjour to all! I am a middle-aged lady, looking for a school in Paris to study French, for two weeks in September. I attended Accord last year and loved it, but am looking for a new experience, with students more my age.
If anybody has ideas, please be in touch. b35213@gmail.com
Thanks so much,and thanks, Kristin, for your fabulous blog.

[Dianne de Poitiers]

Studying French at the ORIGINAL Alliance Française in Paris is a great experience. You'll meet people of all ages from all over the world and you will have to use French to communicate with them. AF will test you when you arrive to know which class is right for you.

[Laurie]

Thanks for citing Varda. She is one of my favorite film makers, right up there with Godard. And yes, I have and will glean when the chance arises.

[Angela]

My grandmother who incidentally came from a wealthy family was always retrieving things others had discarded. Thus my brother got a violin and we still today have a silver milk jug that someone had thrown away. Rather than be horrified, we thought it rather exotic and resourceful. I often think when I see food discarded at the end of the market day, what I could make with it all.......

[anne wirth]

Hi Kristi,
I was realy touched by your story today and you got me to thinking about the many times I saw "two for one items" in the store and passed them up. I could have bought them and offered the second to the food bank.
Thanks for the reminder that we waste so much, and that in our purcheses we need to think of the needy.

[Julie S. from San Diego]

I love this film as well and have shown it to my students. It does make you see the practice of gleaning differently. The film shows many different aspects of gleaning; the practical, useful, sad, and historical sides. I also loved the creative side to creating art from so-called "junk".

[Martine NYC]

Agnes Varda is my hero! That film is a wonderful portrait of French life and the structure of it. I love the law that once a landowner has harvested all he plans to, then others have a right to glean the leftovers on his land. It's a reminder that France is a post-revolutionary country in a great way.
I glean all the time. Wine boxes for my books, chair orphans on the street, tables, a bench, a lamp, an old window full of chicken wire and rippling old glass, window boxes. Working as a cook, I also take home leftover food for myself, friends, and strangers. Even my cats, when I think about it, come from the street. In the country, I forage for black walnuts, asparagus, black raspberries, mustard greens, purslane, lambs' quarters, flowers, firewood. In the city, I have dug up the tulip bulbs along Park Avenue, which would otherwise be tilled up and allowed to rot. My mother, who is in her 80s, recently went into the trash of her neighbor, who had died. She took out beautiful, just dry-cleaned clothes and drove them to the Salvation Army. The realtor hadn't wanted to bother. So I guess I'll be doing this always! It's fun and it does give me a feeling for the wealth of things around me.
The painting is truly gorgeous. I could drink that rose!
Thanks for this great post.

[shari reed]

Here in New Mexico gleaning is alive and well.
Even in the best of neighborhoods people just
place unneeded items in the front of their
homes and within hours those items have found
a new place. When walking by houses the owner
may call out--"Do you want some bulbs or veget
ables? I am the proud owner of Mexican chairs, daffodils, books, veggies--any number
of useful items. The idea is to informally re
cycle as much as possible.

[Karen from Phoenix]

There was a wealthy customer of the brokerage firm I worked for and one day I saw him rummaging through the trash. I asked him why he did that and he said, "it is amazing what people throw out". I admit I don't go through trash but I have picked up a desk from around the corner and carted it home. How I wish I could find chairs like you do Kristi, the ones I see are too damaged.

Beautiful painting by Robyn.

xoxo

[Barbara Payne]

merci pour le recommendation de film. Il y a plusiers annees (1977,) j'ai vu "Une Chante, l'Autre pas." Je le recommand a vous et Jacqueline.
I am a true gleaner. The first morel I ever tasted I found growing in my own yard! I also forage through my neighbors' discards in the street, including the lovely craftman-style futon couch in my den. (I left the matress.)
bisoux a Mama Braise et Smokey-r-dokey.
Bibi

[Carol]

Thanks for this story. The Glass Castle by Jeanette Wall is definitely a book you read with a box of Kleenex handy. But I do highly recommend it. Our mother and most of her peers who lived through the Great Depression, were gleaners, savers, recyclers. They never wasted anything and they saved everything.it's time to review the lessons they tried to teach us.

[Teresa]

I saw the movie about gleaners and you're right--it's great.

Would love to see a photo of the chairs, as someone else mentioned too. Maybe in a new post. How did Jean-Marc bring them back?

[Karen Whitcome (Towson, Md)]

Kristin.

What a wonderful "read" today!

This is one of the best stories you've ever written, "a mon avis". And thanks so much for the film recommendation. I'm a consignment store "freak" but should branch out to the streets and bins for more of an adventure, I guess.

@ Julie F - there is a picture of those two chairs in the June 6th post. A fabulous find!!

[Faye Stampe, Gleneden Beach, OR]

Bonjour Kristin,

What a wonderful story. Merci! I love the painting, and I ordered the DVD.

I bought 2 cuffs - one black the other marron. They just arrived. They are lovely.

Stay well.

Rain on the Oregon coast :(

[Mim (Richmond, VA)]

My husband and I love the Agnes Varda film The Gleaners and I. We've shown it to our students. We recommend it to people, too. Since we are collage and assemblage artists, we consider ourselves to be gleaners, also. I hope that, because of your post, more people will become fans of this film.

[Natalia]

Hi dear Kristin,
Once again, your words and your descriptions have painted a wonderful window on life's experiences.We are not only privileged to be part of your family (and your life!) but also to be reminded of the blessings--and the giving of thanks for-- freedom from want.The Glass Castle(which I'd previously read),and The Gleaners And I just grabbed my heart.!
THANK YOU for another wonderful post!
Love, Natalia XO

[suzana rose borlovan]

I love to recycle wherever possible and I admit to taking an old brassier that was solid iron and slightly rusted from the side of the road that was left out with hard rubbish (in Australia) that I use for a pot plant next to my front door, it is striking and gets loads of comments, and chairs well of course, doesn't everybody have an addiction to chairs?

[Bill Facker]

Beautiful painting, Robyn!

[Robyn France]

Thanks for the kind words on the painting --I have a few more shots from our visit I would like to try to work into a painting but this one is for Kristi--will send as soon as the cards are printed. I loved the book you talk about and will have to see the film--sounds like one not to miss. Thanks for another lovely column.

[Carmel Balchin]

Kristin, how wonderful to read your blog and know how much you enjoyed The Glass Castle. I purchased the book while waiting to catch a flight and simply could not put it down. I must admit to gleaning! Not so much from rubbish bins, although I did find an excellent large ceramic and very colorful pot beside a bin which I will turn into a lamp. I certainly sift through abandoned furniture in the council pickups but you have to be quick because others do the same! My daughter and I have found lots of treasures that were somebody else's trash. Recycling is the best way to furnish your home and keep the process going round. I also put unwanted items on the pickup pile! Keep the good work going, your blog is an inspiration

[Vance Anderson-Inks]

This morning while walking Shadow, I passed the trash area and noticed that someone who had moved out the day before had left a writing desk, a "Secretary". I noticed it was solid wood, not pressed which is so often the case today. It had "youth stickers" ,all but one draw pull gone. It had a drop leaf desk. I thought how sweet it would look stripped, redone, and in a young woman's room. When I came back by, our resident "Dumpster diver" had put it in the trash bin. If the city won't take it, I'm going to claim it tomorrow morning. Your Mom and I both would love this little treasure. The one pull on one of the drawers was "Provencal". That probably belonged to someone's grandmother. Like me, or Jules. I sure miss your Mother.

[Cynthia Lewis in Salisbury, Eastern Shore of Maryland]

Thank you for your wonderful thought provoking writing today. It seems to have touched us all in special and different ways.

[Marianne Rankin]

I have never "dived" for food, and don't normally rummage too much in trash, though I recycle things all the time.

Once at a Christmas party, I retrieved a gift box and some package decorations that had been tossed.

Another time, I was throwing away some "real" trash in a dumpster, and noticed that someone had thrown out a two-drawer wooden file cabinet. The front part of one drawer was coming off, which may be why it was put there. My husband and I took it home, cleaned the outside a bit (inside was perfect), glued the front piece of the drawer in place, and kept it for years. When I decided I needed a 4-drawer file cabinet, I passed the 2-drawer one on to a charity.

[Mary Keates]

While living in NYC for 11 years,it was just part of my day on the way home,to keep an eye out for loot."Move outs" and unfortunately,deaths were the best.I could actually imagine the last few hours of cleaning out the apartment and just' chucking" all the last of the items..
Silver flatware,Le Crueset,French copper pots are some of my best finds.I hesitated by taking my purse into my apartment lobby and missed a Louis Vuitton suitcase!
Miss those days!.While driving and looking for roadside treasures...it's just not the same!

[joie/carmel-by-the-sea, ca.]

I absolutely loved todays story. I am perhaps not a true gleaner, but pretty close to it. As you collect your chairs and keys, I attempt to collect anything French here. Quite a challenge. Actually I go to garage sales and all my napkins, most kitchen utensils, glasses, pillows for the sofa and such all come from there. One mans trash can be another's treasure. My two latest French finds are 4 navy blue tiles with hand painted rabbits on them in two sizes. They sit in the kitchen with my couchon gravy pitcher out of majolica from Bordeaux and the escarcot shells. Then there is the wire big wheeled bicycle that is about 10 inches tall. Oh, and the piece de resistance was the full set of French dinnerware for 10 by Jean Vier for $15.It also included several serving platters and bowls. The only problem is that according to the internet the only thing he really makes is linen(beautiful table linen) in the Basque region. I found the website and e-mailed them a photo with the logo on the back and the whole thing....have not heard back. When one thinks of the waste, why not reuse, repurpose and redfine things. As for food, well, I will grow my own....but there certainly is too much that is just tossed that could be used. In fact last year our big food channel network gave two prominent chefs the challenge to feed 150 people on food that came either from dumpsters or was going to be thrown out by either bakeries, meat, fish markets, restaurants, etc. They could not pay for anything. The results were incredible. Not only the quality of food that was produced, but the point that they were trying to make about how wasteful we have become. Some places just throw things out because they have a bruise on them and the public won't buy.....so wrong.
On the other hand , will we put too many out of business by doing this. I don't think so....perhaps all economies would by a lot better off because of this.

[Ginny Ross]

I have been a gleaner as long as I can remember,finding treasures in many places, but my very best find came after making a tall lamp from some discarded knotty pine boards. The lamp needed a square-shaped shade and, to my amazement, the very next day I found a wire frame the exact size I needed by a trash can in the neighborhood. I covered it with tan burlap, embroidered a rooster on one side and stitched a black border on the top and bottom edges, making it perfect for my rustic lamp base. Unfortunately, my lamp was lost in our next move. I hope the persons who got it in their shipment have enjoyed it through the years. It was a labor of love from a trash-can "treasure".

[Maureen]

...it 's all about kindness and compassion...Just reading "Search inside Yourself" by Chade-Meng Tan, a brillian Google engineer who has transformed the work and lives of thousands of employees at the company. "Meng has distilled emotional intelligence into a set of practical and proven tools and skills that anyone can learn and develop." His aim is to bring peace to the world through making people find happiness in themselves AND for others...... NOT esoteric blah-blah, all is highly scientific.... The description you give, Kristin, of these two gleaners shows that they have it all already. Wonderful!

[Carol White]

What a beautiful picture from Mrs. Mixon - they look like a cute couple.

[Kathleen from Connecticut]

I had a boy friend who used to glean and the first time we did it I was mortified, but then I once found the agitator of a washing machine and I made a lamp out of it. It is amazing what wonderful things can be made from discarded items.
I live in an affluent community and many people will put out children's toys, desks, chairs, etc. for the taking and within a few days they are usually gone. This is especially true in the city near me. We have an apartment building and if we have any items left over from our tenants which can not be used in our apartments, then we put it out on the sidewalk and it is gone within an hour. Once we had a free TV, which we put out and no one took it but then we put a price on it and it was gone immediately.
We are a very wasteful society, in food, material goods etc. There are many people who love to have just a small amount of what most of us have.

[Jim from St. Paul]

When I saw the word and quote, the first thing I thought of was Varda's documentary film and how I would recommend it to you and FWAD readers. Of course then you went on to describe it very well and the comments add interesting perspectives, as always. I will be adding it (just did!) to my Netflix queue to watch again soon.
I have a bit of catching up to do on some of your recent posts, but I always enjoy and admire the unique insight you provide when describing events and the swill of thoughts that each brings. And thank you for being willing to part with Jean-Marc for a few weeks each year for his US trip. I have caught up with him the last three years when he has visited St. Paul for wine tastings and dinners and replenishment of my wine supplies. Someday I hope to join you under the Mulberry tree. Until then I have your writings and the wine to keep me in the proper state of mind. Hope all of you have a great summer.

[Bo Brown]

This is a particularly lovely posting. Thanks for the info on Ms Wall's book and the movie. I really appreciate it.

[Diana Porter]

"Gleaning" is the bomb. I'm glad I now have a much more respectable name for it than the "trash-picking" moniker I have given it for the past 30 years! I have many lovely things that were once trash, but are now MINE! I also love "garage sales" and have recently joined a yahoo group called "freecycle" which posts free things that people don't want, in order to save them from the landfills. I have received 2 sewing machines, a bicycle, table and chairs, clothing, and lots of backyard citrus fruit and herbs and plants from my fellow freecyclers. I am sad when things are wasted. My neighbor threw away several flower arrangements because some of the flowers were wilting; I took out the good ones, re-arranged them, and enjoyed fresh flowers for a week; not to mention 3 lovely baskets. I used to "glean" discarded plants from a nursery, until they started locking their trash area. why not share! Love your blog, as always, cher Kristin. (PS. wouldn't it be nice if we could click "like" on blog posts?)

[Lisa A.,Los Angeles, CA]

Hello Kristin,

I will be in your area the week of July 7th-14th. So, I will miss your first two wine tastings, but by chance will you be having another one between July 28th - August 11th when I will be in the area again?

Talk soon!
Lisa Adams

[Eileen deCamp]

Hi Kristin,
I loved The Glass Castle and will look forward to watching The Gleaners and I. I just watched something on the news last week about people (Freegans?) who go dumpster diving for their food.

[Carolyn Dahm, Sharon, MA]

Hi Kristin,

Thank you for sharing Robyn's beautiful painting with us and the lovely picture of the 3 of you. What a wonderful gift from Robyn!

The Gleaners sounds so interesting and I will put in on my Netflix queue right away. I am always looking at others' trash by the side of the road as potential finds for my home. I can't stand to see the waste that happens in our world-especially food- and I will always be into recycling and using what other people no longer need.

Thank you to all of my fellow FWAD recyclers for sharing your great stories of gleaning. Glean on everyone!

By the way Kristin-I also love chairs and I so enjoy seeing all of your pictures of chairs scattered about your yard enjoying new life!

My best to all, Carolyn