Fruity

Can you smell the fruit from our house?

We're full of fruit. We spotted a pear tree in a public place yesterday and plan to visit it. This picture shows a small bit of what we have at our house. This particular picture contains fruit from the fire station. When I called to ask permission, the man on the phone was speechless. Evidently people stop all the time to pick apples, but no one has ever asked. Until now. I guess I'm really polite.

We started picking apples and pears and just went crazy because it was fun. Mr. GAIN asked, "What are we going to do with all of those?" We gave a lot away to some homeschool friends over the next week -- and we still have a roasting pan heaping full of apples and pears here at the house. They have ripened nicely and are great tasting! I wish the apples were eating AND baking fruit. The pears seem to be good for both eating and baking. I am trying to figure out how to can them. I don't know if I have the right gear to do it, and that is what I'll research tonight. I need to move them to the fridge. In the meantime, I can make the following killer recipes: ginger-pear sauce (yummy on waffles) and apple-pear-cranberry pie (mmm).

"I" of GAIN recently spied an apple tree near the train tracks. "A" of GAIN and I stopped and picked some -- nice yellow apples, spicy flavor. I should have taken our apple picker since the tree was on a steep slope. We could barely reach the fruit. I still have to cook one on the stovetop to test for cooking flavor. They are in the refrigerator.

We were able to pick apples from my great-uncle's orchard over Labor Day weekend. His house, next to my family's home place, now belongs to non-family. It was nice to visit the place and see that the trees weren't taken down.

My sister also let me pick a couple peaches from her tree -- they rock! Her tree branches are ridiculously low to the ground, heavy with fruit. We ought to take before and after pictures, and weigh the produce. She predicted this would happen in June. She's so smart.