The Windfall and the Apple

I got a bag of apples yesterday. They were so good, crisp, sweet, tart. All of this brought a flood of memories to me. Memories of the orchards and the apples and the design of life and the Universe. How much I had forgotten and left behind. How much of the answers to our behaviors lie within the growth patterns and behaviors of the apple tree.

I always thought fall was the best season for me personally. Winter was the best season for my family as it kept us inside and close together. Spring was colorful and promising and summer was comfortable. But fall was personal to me. I have always felt like it was the best season for me, Ann, as if it was designed just for me.

The leaves changing, the temperature changing. Enjoying those changes, all of it is so resonating for me. Much happens in the fall, school starts, that means new clothes, new friends, new teachers, new learning and sometimes new loves. Fall meant a world of new smells. Dusty decomposing leaves, fireplaces, rain and snow(if we were so lucky) and especially the smell of hay.

I remember the days of windfall. Windfall was when the local apple orchards would allow us to come and pick up any of the apples that would fall to the ground and we could keep them for free. It was usually after the fall wind and rains would come and knock them to the ground. The harvest of the best apples was usually well past and the remaining apples were typically spotted, bruised or in some way short in growth or maturity until they get knocked off the trees. We would take the apples home and clean them and cut and dehydrate them and bake with them and make apple sauce. I especially remember Taylor's Apple orchard out near my folks farm. The rows of trees were so wonderful. The kids could run through them and it was always safe. There wasn't anything they could get into that required supervision. They could pick up as many apples as their little arms could carry. It was always fun. I remember the folks talking about the deer coming in the early morning to eat the apples off of the trees and I would be amazed that it was just a free for all the deer and yet no one would go and photograph them or witness it. I always wanted to see the armies of deer eating freely!

I like windfall since I could enjoy the fall sunny day while having some quiet time walking among trees. My tennis shoes would always be wet from the dew and slippery from the decomposing leaves and apples. I can remember the smell of the fermenting apples as they lay in the leaves rotting. The newly fallen ones on top and the rotting ones either smashed, covered in leaves or partially eaten by birds, squirrels or other animals.

I loved the smell of the cider press, the hay strewn on the path among the trees. The apple shed that had the great machines to sort the apples and the bins that held them. It was all so mesmerizing.

Sitting in the grass under the trees on a sloping hill. I would watch the apples roll down into the field. It was always a reflective place and time.

"You can count the seeds in an apple, but you can't count the apples in a seed." This was a saying that made me ponder at great length growing up. I can imagine how many times as a preschool teacher and mom I have taught about the apple to my children and students. The star in the apple when it is cut in a horizontally. The necklaces made from apple seeds. The apple prints in tempura paint. the dried apple leaves. The dried apple faces that look like shriveled up old people, adding cotton for hair and bent pipe cleaners for eye glasses. There was always endless fun.

Cleaning apples after windfall we would find worms, beetles and flies. Peelings could be spotted and thick. Bruises were of all shapes and sizes. Kind of like people. Some folks you know have bruises, worms and bugs, that make them who they are.
Some have coloring that are just defining as unique.

Some people, like apples, have more seeds inside them then one could tell from the outside. Some people, like apples, have no seeds inside them.

Some apples are beautiful on the outside and mushy on the inside.

Some people, like apples, are uniform in their appearance but internally have bruises and bad spots unknown to the outside world.

Some people, like apples, look like the other in their family tree but taste radically different.

Some people, like apples, are crunchy, tart and juicy, while one that may appear to look the same is dry mushy and flavorless!

People like apples, can spoil in a group, some can remain for months in the cold and withstand the season. Ever seen just one apple hanging on a tree when the others have all fallen?

Apples, like people have the genetic material of the universe within them to create and share and provide for so many types of wealth, health and untold treasure!

"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." I know I am most like my parents, I am grateful for that. The growth of my family and development of my children is that of an apple tree, the strength and integrity that is within their seeds and DNA. I would hope the legacy I leave is that kind of pattern of integrity, honesty, hard work, love, faith, passion and dedication that they have given to me.

Apple juice, cider or hot apple totie(sp?) with wine, rum or whiskey? The power and versatility of the apple. Just like people. we can have flavors and characteristics when chemicals are added or our state is altered.

So apples it is! This day I am celebrating the apple in me. In my children, in my life and in my world. An apple a day!