Start of grief, meagre harvest (5)
I believe the answer is:
glean
'harvest' is the definition.
('glean' can be a synonym of 'harvest')
'start of grief meagre' is the wordplay.
'start of' suggests taking the first letters.
'meagre' becomes 'lean' (I've seen this before).
The initial letter of 'grief' is 'g'.
'g'+'lean'='GLEAN'
(Other definitions for glean that I've seen before include "Gradually put together" , "Collect grain (or information?)" , "Gather (slowly, with difficulty)" , "Gather scraps" , "Gather (info or the harvest)" .)