Tuesday, August 28, 2007

I'm an organic apple grower!

So my best pal Hort came over today, and we had our kids in the pool, and when they all got hungry Hort helped them pick apples off the trees in my yard. I was stunned. Okay, so a little confession: we've lived in this house for 10 years and we've got probably six apple trees, a peach and a pear, and I've never eaten any of the fruit. I don't spray the trees, so they are organic, which I know is a good thing, but... the fruit looks organic. I know it's a little princessy of me but I've become accustomed to-- and darn it, I just expect-- perfect apple specimens, round and red, pesticized, homogenized and genetically engineered. Organic is daunting. So I was trying to resist, but as the kids were crunching away--yeah, I have no shame; I let the children be the guinea pigs-- and as they were eating, I felt...envy. And I smelled those apples--fresh, ripe, warm-from-the-sun-- and I had to have one! So I did something genuinely brave then: I picked one, ran into the house, washed, peeled, cut it up and inspected every inch, and you know what? I enjoyed it. Sure, as I was eating I was nagged by those old back-to-school posters in elementary school, with the smiley green worm in a hat poking his head out of the apple and saying "Welcome!" But he never showed. Amazing.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm just angling for some homemade apple pie....

Anonymous said...

There should be apple pie readily available and resting on every window sill in a house with organic apple trees.