Tuesday, September 25, 2012

The Best Ever

apples

I can still remember the way they tasted.  Sweet.  Sour.  And deliciously crisp.  No matter that I had to watch out for the occasional worm.  Small and green, with peels a tad on the tough side, they were hands down the best apples I’d ever had. 

The old apple tree,  standing just a pace or two away from the back porch steps at my grandmother’s house, must have been planted decades earlier.   Now gnarled and stooping with age,  it was still bearing fruit.   That I could simply waltz out to the back yard and pick some of that fruit whenever I pleased never ceased to be a novel experience.  It’s not that I’d never seen an apple tree before, or picked apples for that matter.  It was the idea that my grandmother had her very own apple tree.

bowl of apples

Where we live now, we too have our very own ancient back yard apple tree-gnarled, and stooping as much as my grandmother’s tree did.  Though I don’t know what kind of apple tree it is, the apples are just as sweet, just as sour, and just as deliciously crisp. Occasional worms, and peels a tad on the tough side-our apples have those too.

I know new varieties of apple trees come along all the time, in the quest to make a better apple. Granted, some of those apples are pretty good, with their thinner skins, bigger sizes and absence of worms.  But our apple tree is like an old familiar friend.  Blossoming in the spring, and quietly going about its task of making apples while we go about our own garden tasks of planting and weeding and watering.  And when fall starts to creep in, and the garden begins to die back in preparation for winter-leaving us feeling melancholy that another summer is ending, our apple tree beckons us with a sweet promise, just as my grandmother's apple tree beckoned me.

Come have an apple!  The best you’ve ever had!

apple tree 2

15 comments:

  1. I want an apple tree! Darned cross-pollinating critters!

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  2. Looks like it's producing very well this year too! :-)

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  3. What a pretty tree!

    I love the heirloom varieties best. There is a whole culture of seed savers out there who deserve more recognition.

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  4. I miss having our own apple trees. How lucky you are... and they look GREAT!

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  5. Cam-I wish you could have an apple tree too:)

    Lisa-it's loaded with apple this year, and they are bigger than usual too.

    Tina-I do to, and I'm glad there are people out there who are working to save these heirloom species of trees and plants!

    Are We There Yet-thank you! And I hope you can have apple trees again some day:) Thanks so much for stopping by!

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  6. mmmm ... it's a delicious time of year! When we were kids .. the contest was .. to climb the tree .. eat an apple unpicked and hanging there and be able to leave it still hanging on the branch!

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  7. Lisa-what a fun contest! I wish I'd been there to try that myself when I was a kid!

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  8. Oh this made me so happy bringing back almost the same memories worms and all. Oh thank you. I love my Grandma too.
    Thanks for the great memories. Great writing. B

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  9. Oh this made me so happy bringing back almost the same memories worms and all. Oh thank you. I love my Grandma too.
    Thanks for the great memories. Great writing. B

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  10. Buttons, Thank you! Memories of grandmas are some of the best, aren't they! I really enjoyed your blog post as well:)

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  11. Hey I just found you via Rural Thursday. This is a great blog you have here. I'm Renae #106?, and would love to have you visit my site, too.

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  12. ooops, #65. silly me, hahahaha. (btw, my husband is a "Pete".)

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  13. Hi Renae! Thanks for your comment! I'll be right over:) And how fun your husband is a Pete too!

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  14. We have/had several apple trees that have really never taken off and get an occasional apple or two, but nothing like yours. A very sweet post --- no pun intended!

    Thanks for sharing at Rural Thursdays this week. :)

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  15. Nancy, Thanks!

    We've been here six years now and our tree is still a novelty! I can see why the worms like our apples too:)

    Thank you so much for stopping by, and I'm looking forward to linking up again!

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