An Apple a Day...

My Mom & Dad have apple trees. So does their neighbor. Two years ago those trees produced...big time. Last year...not so much. This year...bumper crop. 


I wanted nothing more this year than to go to my Mom's and "do apples". After plans fell through a time or two, I gave up. Mom lives a few hours away and school had begun at The Wright Academy and, and, and...Apple Day did not happen for me.


Before Apple Day could happen, torrential rains swept across the land. Not to worry, my Mom intended to pick apples, and neither rain nor sleet, nor snow...was going to stop her.

My Dad helped a little too...

At one point, my Mom borrowed and operated a bucket truck from a local business to reach the apples up on top!

With apples gathered, Apple Day commenced and a better cast of characters one need not attempt to assemble. Mom had the All Star Team right there in her very own kitchen.


Lemme introduce you...first the aunts...my aunts...actually one aunt and one ANT. No typo that's the way its always been, ever since at age 5, I made construction paper Christmas stockings and labeled the one for that smiling lady below "Ant Sab." 

Ant Sab is my Mom's sister and, therefore my Dad's sister-in-law. Her good friend, the lady in the orange shirt in the photo below, is my Aunt Janice who also happens to be my Dad's sister, my Mom's sister-in-law. (Have I lost you yet? Are you keepin' up?)

Now, both of my aunts, hard at work making applesauce, were flanked at this happy event by THEIR MOTHERS...

my Grandmothers...my parent's parents.

My Mom's mom, the farthest away in the picture above was busy loading quartered apples into gallon-sized freezer bags while my Dad's mom was busy quartering those apples. 

This great lady turned 90 last March. My Grandma Martha will turn 90 in a few months. I've learned lots from these women and from the weary ones below as well. (Check out all of that applesauce! Which, by the way is best served partially frozen. No kidding, try it sometime...)

I've learned even more from the lady below in red, the one working the apple-peeler-slicer-corer thingy.

Yep that's my Mom (all dry now). 

I love it when she wears red, and mascara, she looks like she's about 24 when she wears mascara. I also love it when she hosts Apple Day. 

All of those great women gathered in the kitchen working together making the most amazing applesauce on the planet, "putting up" apples for future use, making apple dumplings for deliciousness down the road, and sharing the efforts of their labor with me and many others to boot! (Happily these dear women had forgotten the story of the Little Red Hen!)

What a heritage! 

I'm a fortunate daughter, niece, and granddaughter who is doing her best to follow in the footsteps of these ladies, these grand, giving, hard-working  ladies.

I'd be proud for it to someday be said of me...

"You know, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree!"

{Here's an excellent use for these apples, click here for one of my favorite apple recipes.}