Apples and more apples

Earlier this week we (me and Tyler + Becca and crew) had the opportunity to pick apples. Yay! We love apples and the many things that you can make with them, and free apples are the tastiest. Unsure of exactly how many we were going to be able to get, we loaded up the cars with buckets and headed to American Fork.

When we pulled up to the house and started unloading buckets I was feeling embarrassed at how presumptuous we looked with all our buckets- there was no way we could possibly fill that many. Umm. I was wrong. No need to be embarrassed. We filled 14 big buckets and 3 boxes in just over an hour. And we left at least that many on the trees. It was pretty incredible. Maybe someday I'll be cool enough to have trees like that. I think it helped that the lady is a beekeeper and had thousands and thousands of little tiny indentured pollinators.

If only we had stopped to think about the ramifications of picking that many apples. Picking them is easy. Canning them is not quite so simple. 2 days into the process and we think that we've hit the halfway point. Yikes. We are out of bottles, which is a problem- an easily rectifiable one. The less easily solved is our distinct lack of energy and enthusiasm.

Although we are totally exhausted, few things are as rewarding as the hours spent canning. The literal fruits of our labor are lined up in row after row of glistening bottles, practically winking at us and telling us that we'll be thankful later on, when we get to enjoy them throughout the year. I love looking at the shelves in my food storage room filling up and knowing that it's because of my hard work.