The harvest

So, I head out to the back forty for apples.  We’ve had our frost.  They should be good.  I find some large relatively untouched windfalls.  I pick five or six more from the tree—not what you would call grade A, sell in the supermarket type apples.  They were different sizes, different shapes (!) and to the best of my visual acuity, worm free!  Brought them in and attacked all of them with the red apple peeler, corer, slicer gizmo my sister gave us so many years ago. Funny thing is, when they were done, they all looked pretty much the same.  I couldn’t tell which were the windfalls and which were the fresh picked.  I couldn’t tell which were somewhat misshapen.  I could tell which were the larger! (Old age has not stolen that much of my eyesight!)  I sliced them up, threw them in the pan, added some sugar, flour, cinnamon and water, and put a crumb topping over the whole shebang.  Into the oven it went.  After supper, we had warm apple crisp with ice cream.  It was sweet!  Literally! And the leftovers?  They went to the neighbors! 

“Yeah?” you might be thinking.  What’s the point?  Just this. By the time I stripped away the outer layer of the apple, the inner “stuff” was all the same.  It didn’t matter if there was a bruise.  It didn’t matter that some had fallen from the tree.  It didn’t matter that some were larger than others.  And it certainly didn’t matter that some were misshapen.  On the inside they were sweet, succulent, and truly delicious (okay, they were Haralson, but let’s not get picky!).  Made me contemplative.  Some of my friends left home early for various reasons.  Some had the benefit of an amazing family life.  Some are not physical specimens you would see in those magazines you shouldn’t be buying.  Some are definitely larger than others.  But if you get by the outer layer, they are warm, caring, delightful people.  I’m not sure I would call them succulent, but I definitely would call them sweet, and as friends go, delicious!  Okay, okay, some, like me, may be half-baked, but it certainly makes life entertaining.  Maybe we all need to check our back forty!  You are loved!