Fall Apples

The apple trees are hanging heavy on the trees. Driving down the road you see old homestead orchards bright with round red apples. I start to reminisce about taking my young children to a commercial apple (cherry, peach) orchard to pick fruit; how fun to climb the trees or ladders heading to the top where the biggest and reddest apples are found. We'd fill a bushel in no time and head home to make apple pie.

As a young adult I would often find these abandoned orchards and fill a basket for free when I knew the land was vacant and there was no house nearby. There was always the chance that the property owner would take exception to my pilfering, but none ever did. A favorite spot to pick apples is an old orchard on the township property in the woods nearby. I could imagine the deer eating the fallen fruit in the evenings while we were home eating pie or apple crisp. The old apple trees provide so much enjoyment for so many creatures.

When my children were teens I would send them out (kicking and complaining) to a tree along the roadside that I knew hung heavy with fruit. They didn't want to go for fear of having someone chase them away, but they couldn't resist Mom's insistent requests and the thought of warm apple pie after dinner. This year I have spied a gorgeous group of trees on some vacant land with the brightest, biggest apples. This year I'm passing on the adventure and purchasing my apples from the farm market. Joe is happy that no matter where they come from, he'll still get his pie.