Giving Thanks

"All apples are expert inwards November.  Those which the farmer leaves out every bit unsalable, as well as unpalatable to those who frequent the markets, are choicest fruit to the walker.  But it is remarkable that the wild apple, which I praise every bit as well as so spirited as well as racy when eaten inwards the fields  or woods, existence brought into the house, has often a harsh as well as crabbed taste.  The Saunterer's Apple non fifty-fifty the saunterer tin swallow inwards the house.  The palate rejects it there, every bit it does haws as well as acorns, as well as demands a tamed one; for at that spot you lot missy the Nov air, which is the sauce it is to hold upward eaten with....These apples direct maintain hung inwards the air current as well as frost as well as pelting till they direct maintain absorbed the qualities of the atmospheric condition of season, as well as therefore are highly seasoned, as well as they pierce as well as sting as well as permeate us alongside their spirit....To appreciate the wild as well as abrupt flavors of these Oct fruits, it is necessary that you lot hold upward breathing the abrupt Oct or Nov air.  The out-door air as well as practice which the walker gets give a dissimilar musical note to his palate, as well as he craves a fruit which the sedentary would telephone telephone harsh as well as crabbed.  They must hold upward eaten inwards the fields, when your organisation is all aglow alongside exercise, when the frosty atmospheric condition nips your fingers, the air current rattles the bare boughs or rustles the few remaining leaves, as well as the jay is heard screaming around.  What is sour inwards the household a bracing walk makes sweet.  Some of these apples mightiness hold upward labelled, "To hold upward eaten inwards the wind."
                                                                                             
                                                                 -Henry David Thoreau, Wild Apples

I read this passage for this showtime fourth dimension the other twenty-four hr menstruation as well as institute it speaking to me.  The belatedly Nov air exterior my window has seemed to strip the concluding of the leaves from the trees.  Only a few stubborn Oaks nonetheless cling to the brownish remnants of their photosynthesizing extremities.  Having ever left the orchard when picking was done, I often seek to imagine, non actually knowing what the trees straightaway expect like.  I imagine their are some fruit that cope to cling to the branch longer than the leaves around it.  They perchance direct maintain lost some of their luster every bit they hang from a leafless branch.  To walk thought the orchard straightaway would hold upward a much dissimilar experience.  Wandering amid skeletons, the trees mightiness seem much smaller straightaway without their leafy cloaks.  Perhaps at that spot is, somewhere nether a tree, the one-half eaten pith of an apple tree enjoyed yesteryear a picker every bit they sat, dorsum against their bin on a warm September afternoon.   I mean value I tin relate to what Thoreau speaks of, for that same apple tree if placed inwards the bin rather than eaten yesteryear the picker on that autumn afternoon would not, inwards my thought direct maintain given the same enjoyment to whatever other palate no affair how good kept or preserved.
I mean value of all the supermarkets as well as all the apples that are the alone apples that direct maintain ever been tasted yesteryear many souls as well as it makes nosotros wonder how our thought of a desirable apple tree mightiness alter if nosotros placed to a greater extent than emphasis on how an apple tree tasted inwards the crisp autumn air, eaten amid the trees from which it came, as well as less emphasis on how good an apple tree travels across the province inwards a box or how beautiful it looks on the gain shelf ane time it has arrived. 
I tin alone laid out to imagine the complex tastes of ane of Thoreau's apples institute on a long walk some Nov afternoon.  What I am assured of is that the apples I ate spell picking, commonly several times a twenty-four hr menstruation when hunger would encourage a mid-morning or afternoon break, do non compare to whatever I would convey from the shop of apples inwards the basement permit lonely whatever I direct maintain ever institute on a supermarket shelf.  I know that many foods sense of savour amend out of doors, precisely I do believe at that spot is something that is fifty-fifty to a greater extent than exquisite most a fruit, taken from the tree non a infinitesimal earlier it is ripe as well as eaten inwards the grassy shade of that same tree. 
It is straightaway Nov as well as the alone apples left on the trees are no incertitude amend suited to autumn inwards their ain fourth dimension than to hold upward plucked yesteryear my hand.  The apples inwards storage, although perfect for sauce, butter or a crisp would non render the same gustatory  experience every bit they would direct maintain 2 months agone when my manus briefly grasped them betwixt the tree as well as my picking bucket.
I  am good aware that what I suggest puts into query my ain operate every bit an apple tree picker, the thing that brought hold upward to the orchard inwards the showtime place.  I convey my house every bit a picker, a provider of fruit to those who do non corporation out into the orchards, or the woods amid apple tree trees wild as well as grafted.  As nosotros celebrate this fourth dimension of "Thanksgiving" I discovery myself feeling cynical inwards my perception of what I believe to hold upward a dandy detachment from the harvest as well as bounty that nosotros are fain to celebrate as well as give thank you lot for.  If one's noesis of an apple tree goes no farther than the gain department of the supermarket or fifty-fifty the local farm stand, are they actually able to conceive the truthful nature of  the apple, whether it hold upward a wild ane institute on ane of Thoreau's saunters inwards the woods or a Macoun, Pippin or Ida Red taken from a tree inwards the long rays of an Oct afternoon.  I want for every someone who desires to experience genuinely thankful for what is continually provided to us to at to the lowest degree ane time inwards their life walk the circumference of an apple tree tree searching for that ane apple tree that calls out to them, pick it as well as smooth its pare alongside the within of their shirt, lean against the torso amid the fallen leaves as well as one-half rotting apples as well as relish the apple tree inwards its juicy simplicity.

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