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Friday, September 30, 2016

Just a reminder that apples ACTUALLY FOR REAL GROW ON TREES!

I'm emerging from my blog-apathy to tell you that this planet is beautiful and amazing.  I mean, as far as humans go, the world is a steaming pile of garbage, generally, and that covers some damage to this wonderful planet as well.

However, an apple tree recently reminded me that sometimes nature is oblivious to some awful things.  In no particular order...

-wars
-women being treated poorly by men
-men getting away with it
-people who aren't white being treated badly by white people
-white people getting away with it
-animals being abused
-children being abused
-leadership power being abused
-humans being gullible enough to believe anything they're told - especially when what they're told is mean spirited and cruel and degrading and potentially harmful
-being surrounded by all this crap on TV and movies and newspapers and the internets
-humans consuming shamelessly
-humans generating garbage

Did I cover it all?  If I left something out, please don't add it in the comments.  I just wanted to get that out of the way and then NOT think about it anymore.  That stuff is all over the news, and it's hard to get away from it.  Let's take a break.

Down the road and around the corner, there's a tiny little farm.  The house is old and kinda rickety, but it's obviously cared for, with new siding and a nice side porch.  The yard is clean, the flowers look happy, and there's a vegetable garden.  There are also about five apple trees along the side of the road.

I like to walk my dog that direction.  This street is the next best thing to living in the country, and I often need that.

This time of year, the apple trees are so heavy with fruit that it falls off the branches.  There are apples in the ditch, smelling sweet and rotten and slightly fermented in the sun.  It's been an abnormally hot September.  Cars drive over ripe apples that have rolled onto the road.  Pavement applesauce.

It bothers me to waste food in any case, but I thought at least, I could grab a few that landed on the ground with very little damage, and take them out to the farm to give my horses.  I'm pretty sure that would be ok, right?  Maybe it looks weird in this privileged country, to be scavenging apples off the side of the road, but where's the shame in that, right?  I don't think it's stealing, is it?

Well, happily, I found out that the owners don't mind if someone picks apples.  They're not doing it, somebody might as well.  At the very least, it'll clean up the grass a little, make it easier to mow.

I filled a bag with the small red apples, with a tinge of paleness on one side, and little bumps on the bottom.  I ate a few.  They were just a little bit sour under the sweetness.  My dad ate a few.  They were good.  I gave the horses one each for a couple days and they chewed and slobbered blissfully.

I grabbed a few hard little yellow apples.  The horses loved them.  They are very hard and bitter, so probably what my grandmothers would have called baking apples.  I might not get around to baking them.

One tree has big red apples.  I'd taken a few out of the grass, but one day a beautiful apple fell out of the tree right in front of me.  I stuck that one in my pocket.  Later, when I ate it, I felt like all of nature was singing to me that the world is still good, and the planet isn't done yet, and there is sweetness and perfection in the humblest places!  It was possibly the best apple I've ever eaten.  (No wonder the horses looked ecstatically happy!)  That apple was so good, I hoped God won't chase me out of the garden or something.

I haven't been down that direction for a few days.  I think tomorrow I'll take the Pug down the road, with a bag over my shoulder, and a hoodie with really big pockets.

6 comments:

Paul Tee said...

Do it. Fruit tastes so much better when you pick it yourself, know the tree it comes from and have a connection to the countryside. We have five trees with so much fruit that we don’t know what to do with it all. Some have a blemish on the skin but the flesh is good. Can’t even give it away as my friends prefer picking at the grocery store. Horses know better.
Nice to have you back Heidi.

Undercover Confidential said...

Hi Heidi, glad to read your latest blog. Sofie and I were up bombing around the Beaver Valley a couple of weeks ago. From what I saw, it looks like apple picking time is almost in full swing. I loved the smell of apples hanging in the air. It's pretty cool to smell that just driving by the orchards. I live close to a working orchard near Barrie and drove in there to buy a bag of apples there instead of the grocery store. I'd much rather pick 'em and eat 'em but that option isn't offered there. Of course, the orchards I pass in my travels are on private property and I wouldn't presume that I can help myself. Enjoy your apple picking days, girls. Give Dobie a kiss from Sofie!

Paul Tee said...

Sadly all the apples have fallen. One or two still rattle around on bare branches, tenaciously denying that winter is here. Shriveled up, they are gloomy reminders of the warm sunshine that had nourished the fruit not so long ago. Bitten by frost, the fallen apples are rotting on the ground or stay hidden in the coarse grass. Gone too are the thoughts of apple pies from handpicked apples or making apple sauce or apple butter tinged with cinnamon.

Paul Tee said...

Sadly the snow has swallowed the apple trees. A weight of snow settled on every branch and every twig. One lone apple still clings to a stem in obvious denial of the season. "I will just hold on until the sun shines again." Meanwhile, the wind gathers, hunting through the branches, to test his resolve. Apple, dear apple, don't you know that your time has passed?

Paul Tee said...

Overnight heavy winds rattled through the frozen branches, shedding a veneer of ice and snow. In the heartless cold, the last apple gave up hope and fell. Half buried it lies on the snow-clad ground, with a spark of possibility that its seeds might survive into spring and start the cycle again.

ahmed deraz said...

قمر الامارات
هى السبب الاساسى وراء التمتع بصحة جيدة خالية من الامراض والبكتيريا والميكروبات فالاتربة والقذارة لا تجلب الا المرض والصحة المعتلة.بالاضافة للتمتع بالصحة ايضا النظافة عنوان الاناقة والرقى فلا يعقل ابدا ان يكون هناك مكان انيق وهو غير نظيف
شركة تنظيف كنب راس الخيمة
شركة تنظيف سجاد راس الخيمة