Next weekend, our favorite apple orchard is closing for the season, to reopen in its summer incarnation in June when it will be ablaze with berries of all kinds which we will pick ourselves in their sweet juicy berriness amid the bees and the sultriness of a Pennsylvania summer day.
Personally I will miss the apples, harbingers of autumn in their juicy crispness, the apples of which we won’t be able to find a decent one, not even for a $2.00/each ransom at Whole Foods, until September. That’s a long time to go without apples. Oh sure, we’ll be having strawberries and blueberries and nectarines and peaches and watermelon and apricots, but there’s a definite and yawning gap between one weekend from now and midsummer when those summery fruits are available.
And Serena consumes at least one “crunchy apple” a day. Which is a welcome turnaround from the cold days of winter when she in her grief would barely consume anything at all, willing herself into a pale waif of nothingness. So I am more than willing to provide her with as many crunchy apples as she can eat, observing that as she does so the apples of her cheeks grow slightly more rosy with each apple consumed.
Today she had three crunchy apples, because we purchased $24.00 worth. They now fill our refrigerator along with a jug of their purest and most appley essence, cider.
It won’t be enough. We will go back next weekend, the last Apple Weekend, and we will buy enough to continue to fill every nook and cranny of the refrigerator, to possibly stretch Serena’s longing into the next autumn, and the next.
March 28th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
I have to admit that there is something “purely right” about pulling something off of a tree and eating it right on the spot. Almost feels like we started out that way sometime back. Now, “crunchy apple” is the key here! I’m afraid that most just aren’t, at least the store-bought variety, and mushy fruit is a supreme disappointment. Maybe they just sit around too long? I’ve moved over to the pear aisle where the “crunchy” success rate seems higher. A good pear should challenge the tooth-gum union, IMHO.
Regarding the “organic” aspect of groceries, I’ve always been somewhat cynical. Not so much that they might not be a purer, “un-tampered with” combination of carbon-hydrogen-oxygen, but that the corporate seller of such might just be doing a token certification of the goods, not unlike some of the kosher products you find in the same aisles.
Then again, I may be gravely wrong about all of this and should wise up quickly!
BTW, watermelon is a pretty amazing food also!
RV
March 28th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
This was beautifully written and made me long for an apple! There are too many autumns where I’ve missed going to the orchard…
March 31st, 2007 at 8:11 pm
i love that this post makes me think you eat locally, and what’s in season…so do we. it means you go without sometimes, but whenever that particular treat is in season, oh happy day!