Scored!

Following a suggestion on where to locate apricots, I scored big time in finding these apples ripe for the picking 

right near a nature preserve, still hanging from the tree, but in easy reach for me. Such luck!

Next will be the baking of 'Oepfel Waehe' or my kind of apple tart.

I can now, a few days later, attest to the deliciousness of those apples.

No, I am not about to nibble on a dog treat. 

Such are near always when eating in the company of my canine companions, 

as leaving them with a sense of deprivation is not an option.

My casual breakfast out on the patio while it is still warm enough 9.8.16.

Break of a non-existent fast 9.6.16 with my own home-made pizza topped with pineapple.

Zvieri with an apples-cranberries tart topped with whipped cream from 5.1.2011.

Oepfel und Zwetschge Waehe, meaning apple and plum tart from 4.6.2011.

Living the good life with Oepfel Waehe or home made apple tart while gazing at pretty orchids 8.16.12.

Ambivalence

Hours of work got in to the making of these three jars yesterday. Opening one jar does become a festive occasion with so much sweat equity. It reminds me of times past when jars filled with food were not commonly available on store shelves. A time I never experienced but only heard of.

In truth I cherished avoiding more pressing matters by placing my focus on the fruit bowl on hand, still filled mostly with loot off common grounds, here depicted with the occasional store bought Mango.

A Sunday afternoon seemed like a perfectly good time to attend to a pile of Apples and Crabapples and to mix another jar of Salsa Verde of my liking, which includes bits of Apples and Crabapples with one whole cluster of Garlic and one whole bunch of Cilantro and then some.

By the end of the afternoon I am left with mixed feelings. All this work for 3 jars only, while other important matters are left unattended? Yes, even these jars filled with goodness can leave me feeling ambivalent, not to talk about life in general.

More Loot

Under a rising, milky, almost full moon, with still plenty of daylight, I got to the big tree with the big apples and discovered that I was not the only one interested in loot. A few rough and tough looking, probably Mexican guys were hanging out, aiming funky apples from the ground up at the good ones hanging out of reach. I had no hesitation joining them in my hunt for good enough apples for sauce for tomorrows addition to free meals offered at the nearby shelter. Once the guys understood that I wanted to bring the apples processed in to applesauce to the shelter, one stranger, Ramon, with his front teeth missing, took it upon himself to reach those ripe and juicy looking apples way above us by climbing up that old gnarly tree. We made a great team as he started to throw me apples one by one and I was able to catch each, except for one. In that way I was able to fill my whole backpack with freshly picked, ripe and juicy, beautifully intact apples.

The kindness of strangers tends to show up in the most surprising places with the most interesting faces. Ramon, with his missing front teeth, no doubt would have scared many a middle aged woman.

While some older, maybe wiser women proclaim to be nobody's mom and may decry those that support another's habit of begging by giving out of sentimentality rather then good judgment, some such woman may still get joy out of giving that which she prepared with love and attention and ingenuity and last but not in the least, with the most important, if unexpected helpful kindness of strangers.