The Apple of my Eye

From year to year I have never taken full advantage of local peaches in season, which is a real shame. Especially since Utah peaches are some of the best summer peaches ever, in the world, some say. My missing said peaches is harshly punctuated by the fact that after peaches come apples. I am not an apple lover. You hear me apple harvest? I am not in love with you.

Growing up my parents had some of the strangest fruit trees growing in our yard. The weirdest was the flowering plum tree, with plums not to be eaten, growing in the front yard. "Those are poisonous, so don't eat them," we were told time and time again. So instead we threw them at the fence and at each other. We would also always end up stepping on them in our bare feet, the juices and innards squishing through our toes, looking like we were mortally wounded. Ew, weird tree!

Second weirdest, the cherry tree. It was always diseased and dying, only producing the sourest of pie cherries known to mankind. It also was not a very good climbing tree, always too small and the bark so rough. As such I never really enjoyed or rejoiced in the cherry tree either. It actually just met it's demise a few years ago when my dad finally, after much longsuffering, decided to go all George Washington on it.Chop chop, good by weird cherry tree.

Next up, and the least weirdest by my standards, were the apple and plum trees. Once again, I didn't really enjoy the harvest of these trees until after I grew up. Now though, I love the idea of harvesting a plum or a Granny Smith right from the back yard. In fact, I love the idea a little too much. A couple of weekends ago I went a little too gung ho with the apple tree and picked a few too many apples. They are green and sour. They are great with caramel or when they are made into pies, but not great otherwise. Well, I picked more than I could eat. I guess the good thing is these apples last forever. I mean months and months after the end of the harvest these babies are still good. Hearty little apples from a hearty little tree. I still don't love them, but I sure to admire them. It was fun to share a little fall harvest with my Littleman in my parent's backyard.