Gleaning

The gleaning, often referred to as gleaning was a common method of harvesting the lower social strata of a village. Which occur after the cutting and removal of the grain on the field remaining spikes were searched and collected at harvest time.

Besides ears were collected and left lying fruits of fields, vineyards and trees, following the earlier harvest.

The future reference has traditionally been by arms, who possessed no property, often by children. Today, it is performed on a large scale of humanitarian organizations, such as in fields that are not harvested for economic reasons. In some parts of Germany there is still the custom of people in need in fruit orchards, the reading ( " stopplen " in the Palatinate also called ) allow to.

The practice was and is often protected by law ( gleaning law). At other times, it was and is forbidden to read foreign fields without explicit permission.

The gleaning law in the Bible

In some places in the Old Testament of the Bible is a gleaning law is described:

• 3 " And when ye reap the harvest of your land, you are allowed the corners of thy field not wholly reap and allowed to hold any gleaning of thy harvest " Genesis 19.9.
• 5 Moses 24.19 "If you bring your harvest on your field and you have forgotten a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it. For the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow it should be. "
• 5 Moses 24:21 "If you hold in your vineyard harvest, you shall not hold after gleaning. For the stranger, the fatherless, and for the widow it should be "

In Book of Ruth the Moabite Ruth ears reads on the harvested fields of their distant relatives Boas.

Legal situation today

There exists at least in France still collect the explicit right, what is left as it is presented in the documentary " Les glaneurs et la Glaneuse " by Agnes Varda. Here the practice of gleaning from the perspective of the rural population of France is shown.

Originally, this law refers to " glaner " (French for " pick up ", " collect " ) on what remains lying on the field after harvest.