What a glorious morning it was! I went to the back steps to enjoy a look at the wonderful half-moon, perched on top of the sky at dawn, riding high without a cloud in the sky.
(This looks like a night-time photo, but it was at 6:30 a.m.)
Before I went back in the house, I peeked at the garden, expecting to see ripe fruit; but instead, I saw a furtive black chicken, trying to hide behind a large tomato plant! Forgetting that I wasn’t dressed for outside, I ran out, clapping my hands to scare her away.
The noise I made caused another sneaky head to bob up, and then I noticed a piece of red skin hanging limply from the stalk. That was all that was left of a large, beautiful tomato, picked clean by a hungry beak! I had been planning to make some salsa!
(They were long gone by the time this was taken, but I would never have seen her if she hadn’t moved her head!)
I lost all sense of decorum as I rounded the corner and saw the carnage they left behind them: I saw luscious, ripe tomatoes still connected to the vine, with the insides pecked clean! The thought of salsa fortified me, and I didn’t stop until they were all locked into the chicken run. But in the meantime, we lost a lot of good tomatoes.
Later on during the morning, I went for a walk around the back to get a view of the beautiful crab apples that should be starting to turn red about now. The ones in the direct sunlight are the first to turn red, but the sunlight comes from the outside of the yard, so I have to go around. Every year we look forward to making wonderful jellies and juice from our crab apples, following my Grandma Hilda’s recipes.
From the way things looked in early spring, I knew that we were going to have a light crop this year, but I was not prepared for what I saw when I got out back. A tightly-packed stand of poisonous hemlock was on the corner of the yard, but from the inside I didn’t see as many, and thought they were Queen Anne’s Lace. Behind that, a huge ragweed plant blocked most of the light from reaching the trees.
But the sad thing was that when I pushed through all of that tangled mess, I found the apple branches were almost totally empty.
That’s really hard to accept, because in the more than twenty years we have lived here, those little crab apple trees have always produced. They have borne so many tiny apples that there were times they broke branches; in fact, last year, a major branch broke once again.
I know I had seen developing fruit earlier in the spring, though it was light. But now, for the first time ever, I only found one or two clusters. I searched, and saw lots of the unripe apples on the ground. Hmmm.
That reminded me of a Macintosh tree I had planted about ten years ago: Even after five years of waiting, it wouldn’t bear fruit. We finally realized the tree was reacting to the mature black walnut trees. They release a chemical called juglone that inhibits the growth of other plants. I had underestimated how far that stuff travels through the soil, and though I had planted the Mac all the way on the other side of the yard, it was still too close. The tree itself was able to live, but it didn’t grow very much, and didn’t have enough energy to produce fruit, so it dropped them before they could grow.
It seemed to me like that same thing was happening, so I looked for a black walnut sapling among the apple branches.
Sure enough. I found a three-year-old black walnut tree growing right under the drooping apple branches.
I called Tony right away because he loves to dig, and he was willing. Along the way, he also found another black walnut sapling growing on the other side of the fence, probably in its second year. Between them, those two walnut trees produced enough juglone to completely stop our crab apple trees from producing fruit this year.
That makes two disappointments, and I prayed to ask the Lord, “Why?” I know that the Lord blesses us when we follow Him, but I also know that He allows us to go through difficult things for a reason. While I was praying, I thought of what it would be without the crab apples this fall.
“You don’t know what you’ve got, ’till it’s gone,” says the song, and it’s true. I thought of the fun times we would miss without the crab apples. They usually take several days to pick, but we bring music outside, and Tony tells jokes and Beau makes puns and we check out the wildlife (wasps, butterflies, etc.) All that is a lot of fun for us.
We also enjoy the processing time. It may sound like a terribly tedious job to cut up crab apples, but we have found that all we have to do is get rid of any bad ones and cut off the blossom end (too bitter.) We usually look forward to it, because we each get a large bowl full of tiny apples, put on a good movie, and take our time cutting them up.
Last year, cousin Ted lent a hand, and we all took a trip to the ’70’s and watched the original Rocky!
Burgess Meredith as “Micky;” Sylvester Stallone as “Rocky” in the 1976 film by that title.
(Hey, this year, we could watch a movie without having to cut up crab apples!)
On the bright side, we will have all the time we usually spend picking, washing, sorting, cutting, then finally cooking, mashing and canning–we will have all that time free now! The one thing you can’t buy, besides love, is time; so that is a great blessing, indeed.
I was also grateful when we checked our stash. We found we still have quite a bit of sauce, juice and jelly canned from from last year. (Beau checked the upper cupboard for me.) Another very good thing! So in the end, it’s good that the trees didn’t bear.
And while “we” were looking, Beau found about a dozen extra jars of salsa in the back,too, so that means the tomato damage this morning won’t hurt quite as much as it could have. That is another reason to be thankful and praise God! And it reminded me of a promise God made to the children of Israel thousands of years ago.
“If you walk in my statutes and keep my commandments. . .You shall eat the old harvest, and clear out the old because of the new..” Leviticus 26:10
I thought of how silly I must have looked this morning when I took off after those naughty chickens (in my pajamas), trying to run them out of the garden. A frightened chicken can outrun me any day, and I probably caused more damage chasing them out than they caused by having a snack!
“In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
What if I had just continued thanking God for the day, the way I had started out? I would have saved myself some struggle. It might seem a little different to thank God for a chicken eating my tomatoes, but there are still lots left, and I didn’t even realize I still had salsa left from last year. The chickens will probably produce a better egg for having fresh tomatoes! (It’s also a good reminder to take a look at the fence along the chicken run!)
Not having to pick the crab apples is actually a gift. It’s God’s way of taking care of us. He removed a burden so that we could catch up a little; and I am so thankful!
It’s a little crazy how I can start the day angrily crashing through the garden, and yet end up thanking God for the same thing in the evening. Personally, I enjoy feeling thankful much more than being angry. (And I might have saved myself some embarrassment in the neighborhood if I would have just thanked Him first!)
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4 NLT)
The Fullers Four 