A: Appreciation For Apples


The Wishbone Alphabet – an experiment, of course, with attitude, life and the eponymous soup.


Appreciation is something to be practised at every opportunity like pelvic floor exercises and every bit as useful.
Since today the A-Z theme is in its infancy I shall demonstrate using an A word, and I choose the obvious apple. I happen to have some home grown russets, stored in my fridge over winter, but one bought from a shop is absolutely acceptable.

My apple is: wrinkly from long storage, rough leathered light brown skin, a bit of stalk where it was once attached to the tree. It fills my palm, the chilled weight of it, I can imagine it falling from the branch to the grass; thumping on the ground, rolling down the orchard slope till it catches and settles in uneven turf. 
It has an earthy scent till I cut it, on the chopping board, under the sharpened steel blade of the vegetable knife. Opened apple fragrance is fresh and light, acidic sweet, faintly sour. The flesh of the russet is pale, off white, creamy-yellowish. The core is neatly packed with symmetrical seeds; glossy brown, chestnut coloured, the shape of tears, blueprints of future trees. It will take years of growing before these apple blossoms open. If I use the apple-corer it pulls a plug of flesh and seeds like a mining sample. It leaks juice. This apple I will cut into eight tidy segments, and eat skin on, piece by piece. Each bite has bite; crunchy, sharp, has a little bit of shiver to it. 
This apple has only made its journey from a bud on a tree to full size fruit, dropping to the ground, via a yellow bucket, to arrive at the house next door. Other apples fly from thousands of miles away. There may be a hundredweight of a hundred different types of apple in the air over my head as I sit looking out of the window, eating this chopped up russet.

The more I feel appreciation for the apple, the lovelier the moment becomes.



Comments

Thus is a lovely, sensual post.
Thank you for your wonderful palpable description of a moment in time.
jean
Joe Richardson said…
" It fills my palm, the chilled weight of it..." Love this.

Your writing and an early-autumn apple have much in common. Both are sharp, colorful, delicious, and leave you hungry for more.

Thanks for sharing, Lily. See ya 'round the A/Z.
sc morgan said…
I enjoyed this ode to a winter apple very much. My grandmother had an apple orchard in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Oregon. And I remember making cider out there in the late fall, so, I loved all the sensory descriptions and in the end, the apple. Very nice.
Stephanie V said…
Oh my. This was a wonderful appreciation of an apple. I subscribe to the 'apple a day' theory of health care. I have a wee apple tree that I planted two years ago. I am hoping for at least one this summer. I'll be back.
Autumn was always a time for picking apples from the trees at my grandmother's place, and then we'd make sooooo many wonderful pies. My brother and I always competed to see who could peel the apple in one unbroken piece of peel. To this day, whenever I peel an apple, I think about that. Great start to the challenge. Happy A-Zing!
Inger said…
What a lovely ode to an apple!
Mimi said…
wow, I didn't know people still ate them when they looked like this!


Mimi Torchia Boothby Watercolors
Lisa Southard said…
Thank you every one- a very bolstering start to the A-Z! I have visited your blogs too, and attempted to reciprocate comments although I am a bit of a disaster with technology! Some of the comments are from me as Lily (my pen name, often used) and some from my actual real name, Lisa Southard (sometimes used) which may or may not cause confusion, sorry about that. And Mimi, yes, you can eat a wizened apple! :-) xx
Catherine Stine said…
Lyrical post! Yes, it's important to really step back and appreciate the world, and all of its delights, even the sorrows. I have some apple trees at our weekend place, and even the blotched ones are delicious. I'm over from the A to Z fest (I'm #672) so come visit Idea City of you like.
Teresa Cypher said…
Nice post, Lily! I actually thought about using botany as a theme, and apple would have been my "A" choice. :-) Instead, like my life, randomness suffices for my theme. This is wonderfully done--I could see it, smell it, feel it, taste it, hear the crunch...

See you soon, girl!
Lisa Southard said…
Thank you Teresa and Catherine! Keeping up with my reciprocal visits so far- think I'll be in need of a few apple breaks this month :-) xx

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