After mowing the lawn at the cabin, I noticed that the apples on a nearby tree were ripening. I chose one yellow-green with just a blush of red, and no noticeable worm holes. I shined it by rubbing in on my t-shirt. Then took a deep, crisp bite. The apple made a hard, crisp crackling sound, tart juice hit my taste buds, memories came to mind.
As children, my sister and I stole green apples from the tree on the old maids property, an abandoned cabin just east of our home. Yummy green apples, we would them until they almost made us sick. We would bring them home to share with our parents and to eat sprinkled with salt. They may have come from a volunteer apple tree or one planted by the old maid that had lived in the cabin.
There are lots of volunteer apple trees in the canyon. They grew from apple cores left by the WPA workers that build the water pipeline through the canyon in the early 1940's. As children, we knew which were the best green and which were better once they ripened to red. The canyon deer like apples. The often clean all the apples in reach, then return at a later date to feast on the windfall apples that have fermented.
Fermented apples add an interesting scent to the autumn breeze. They mix with the fragrance of fallen leaves and acorns.
And then, there is the autumn scent of apples, my mother's homemade apple sauce cookies made with green or red apples whichever are available. The scent and taste of apples, cinnamon, and cloves.
I just had to share a few of the memories brought to mind by a bite into a crisp, hard yellow-green apple. What memories come to mind for you?
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