I've always known, deep down, that fruit trees rocked. Apple, apricot, cherry, pear, plum...I'm just warming up here. What's not to like? My mom has a choke cherry tree. That one gives me pause. I just don't have enough imagination I guess to get all that hog-wild-excited about those. So how do I know that fruit trees, yes, that's right, rock? Well, let me think. Allow me to conjure up some examples: I remember visiting my friend Eirene each summer and ravaging her current bush for hours at a time. My fingers would be stained red and my intestines would cramp--oh joy like nothing I'd ever known! But this won't do, I know, for bushes never were trees.
Well, there was the time I saw my very first pomegranate tree. It was in Beijing, China. I felt so elite and sophisticated, living in a courtyard where exotic pomegranates grew right out of the ground! How was I to know they did that in California, too?
The most memorable dessert I've ever eaten was in Florence, Italy which happened to be followed by the most memorable slice of pizza margherita I've ever eaten. After clearing our plates the waiter stepped up onto a stool, reached his hands high into the leafy branches and plucked a handful of oranges from one of several orange trees that shaded us on the patio while we ate. Then without a word he laid them on the table for our enjoyment. Mmmm. At least I knew this time that oranges did in fact grow in California right along with those exotic pomegranates, so I wasn't so much caught up in the exoticism, just the fresh factor.
Then there was the time, when we lived in southern Utah, our neighbors invited us to come harvest all the potatoes we wanted from their field one day...yeah, okay, I'm out of fruit tree examples. So though I know I saw my share of fruit trees growing up I clearly didn't have much interaction with them. And until you're responsible for a fruit tree, for better and worse, it's easy to see them through rose colored glasses. What would it be like to have free-flowing fruit right outside my door? I know--it must rock!
This deep-seeded enthusiasm was put to the test when, upon moving into our new home this past June we discovered that the giant shade tree in the backyard was none other than an apricot tree. It was probably as old as the house by the look and size of it, pushing 60 years or more. But what really blew my mind were all of the bundles of green, golf-ball sized fruit that filled every viable branch as far up as my eye could see. There had to be thousands of them.
The "thunk-thunk" on the tin lean-to shed that, well, leans underneath the apricot tree was the grand announcement that apricot harvest was upon us. For about three full weeks of July it was apricot madness. Because this tree is so big, and perhaps not properly pruned, I had no notion how to properly harvest the fruit. Our friend's twelve-foot ladder got us to the lowest branches. Another time, my husband and his buddy climbed it and shook whatever branches they could, whilst, down below clenching a tarp, I wore a make-shift metal colander helmet to protect myself from the hailstorm of a lifetime. And while that did fill up buckets worth of apricots, it hardly dented the mother-load. So we eventually resigned ourselves to laying out a tarp underneath the tree and letting the fruit fall and then gathering up whatever wasn't terribly bruised. Because we used this method, I threw out probably every other apricot.
I scrubbed and pitted bowl after bowl full, filling dozens of baggies and freezing them for smoothies. I dehydrated. I fruit-leathered. I apricot-syruped. I jam-med. (My English is suffering more with every sentence) I had my neighbors come gather at will. I took bags full to friends. And, of course, I stuffed endless amounts directly into my mouth. All this, I say, for about three weeks straight. And that was just the half of it. Like, literally, just half of the harvest. Please recall that I threw out about every other apricot because they were too smashed, bruised, or inhabited. My mind couldn't conceive of how I would have stayed on top of it if every apricot had made the cut. I was exhausted and by the time the last apricot fell, my fairy-tale fruit tree fantasy had been laid to rest.
Time heals all wounds, fortunately, or at least hazes our memory. Once I recovered from the low-back pain from endless gathering and sorting, and once the water bath pot was back in the storage room and my shelves lined with pretty, filled glass jars, I thought, "maybe it was worth it". And now, only a month or two later, pouring my apricot syrup over hot waffles on a chilly autumn morning--I know it was worth it! I'll be benefiting from my three-week internment for the rest of the year.
All of this is to say that, man, do fruit trees know how to supply or what? They are the quintessence of abundance. I was in my friend Malea's backyard just a few days ago and was floored at how many pears her little baby pear tree is producing--enough for a day of canning for sure. It's caused me to really ponder what this overused and often abused term "abundance" is all about.
Where there's abundance...
...there is generosity (If I tired to hoard all of the apricots for myself they would have rotted before I could have dented them)
...there is forethought (how can I make these last year-round?)
...there is joy (oh sweet succulent ripe fruit in my mouth!)
...there is responsibility (I couldn't bear to see the fruit go to waste)
...there is preparedness (thinking of those pretty jars again...)
...there is gratitude (I didn't have to do anything except accept. Just accept the gift. And accepting the gift means sharing the gift)
...there is a season (thank you, God, for only allowing me three weeks of blessed insanity instead of year-round madness)
What would you add to the list?
