A few years ago, we had a back to school celebration with a Fear Factor food challenge. I think two of my three girls were disqualified when they tried to eat fruit cocktail. They couldn’t swallow the canned grapes! I was raised on fruit cocktail! I remember clearly at age 7 or 8, when my dad made us a slice of bread with peanut butter and topped it with canned fruit cocktail. My sister Dede and I loved it SO MUCH we insisted dad open a restaurant!
When I met Danny, I learned to LOVE the beauty and taste of fruit straight from the tree. I even received my wedding ring, as a surprise, at the end of the cherry sorter, on a warm July evening. After we were married, his grandma came to our small apartment and taught me to can peaches. I haven’t kept up the canning tradition, but Danny and I have bought and planted several fruit trees. We have purchased most of them on spring shopping trips to Costco.
Our current collection of trees:
- 3 peach
- 1 nectarine
- 1 pear
- 1 apple
- 1 cherry
- 1 plum
- and a row of grape vines
The family orchard is gone. We no longer spend Saturday mornings helping Papa sell fruit at Farmer’s Market. Fortunately, our love of fresh fruit will last forever.
