No applesauce this year.

A couple days ago I headed to the family garden in great anticipation. I had been patiently waiting to harvest the McIntosh apples from our 100 year old apple tree for quite some time. Just a few days prior to this, I checked on their ripeness and was thrilled to see they were nearly ready to pick.

When I arrived at the family garden, my dad waved me over and told me he had some bad news. He was getting ready to mow the pasture that morning and made his routine stop at the apple tree to make sure all of the fallen apples were picked up....only there weren't any on the ground. Finding that pretty unusual, he looked up in the tree only to find it empty...literally, there were no apples left. Yep, we were robbed.

At first I was angry...who would do this? I calmed down after a bit and realized (with the help of my family's positive outlook) that perhaps someone else needed those apples more than we did. There will be no homemade applesauce this year but I have much more to be thankful for.... my family.... and all the memories that we have. You see, the apple tree has stood the test of time just as our family's love for one another. And the tree keeps on giving just as our family does for one another. So all is well and I'm at peace with the fact that someone took our apples. After all, there is always next year : )

On a side note: I blogged about our apple tree a while back and talked about its significance to our family : http://bentsbeergarden.blogspot.com/2010/02/family-tree.html. In the story, I mentioned that my mom used to make applesauce each season. Actually, I failed to mention that my dad also helped my mom with this task. In fact, they would spend countless hours in the kitchen making enough applesauce to last our family all winter long. I loved the cooked apple aroma emanating from our home on a crisp fall day. But I especially loved watching my parents work together....they always had a way to make work seem like fun.