Ever heard of gleaning the fields? It’s when people collect the leftover crops after a field has been harvested. Turns out, our neighborhood is great for gleaning. We may not have any farmers these days (the entire Silicon Valley used to be full of orchards of all kinds…) but we’ve scored some sweet finds from what people are throwing away. Citrus was my first experience of this (it’s almost citrus season again!) There are also persimmon, pear, and apples trees. I’ve brought home massive pine cones from Lake Tahoe from a couple of our trips. Those strewn around the house as Christmas decor right now.
Yesterday, I got home from dropping Wade off at school and noticed one of our neighbors was pruning their gorgeous, huge eucalyptus tree. I’ve been wanting to cut some limbs from that tree since we’ve moved here. So, I ran over there and asked the tree trimmers if I could snag some of the limbs before they went in the chipper. They looked at me like I was a crazy lady with too much time on her hands, but they said yes.
Then, when I went out a few hours later to pick Wade up from school, I noticed they were cutting down THE WHOLE TREE. There was a veritable mountain of eucalyptus limbs just waiting to be destroyed by the chipper. I worked up the courage to go back over and grab more. The tree trimmers gave me some more crazy looks, but were happy to oblige my request again.
I’ve got all kinds of visions for what to do with it. So far, all I’ve done is throw some sprigs into a vase. Those persimmons are also the product of a neighborhood gleaning session. They are delicious served with these spiced nuts.
Luckily, Sunset magazine is always good for timely chic decor inspiration. I’ll hopefully have some time this weekend to attempt a wreath like the one below. The DIY is from this month’s issue, so I couldn’t find it online to share with you just yet…
Free decor is the best decor, don’t you think? What should I do with all of it??
Free and natural is best, thats what I always say! 😉