An apple moment.

Today we pressed 1000 litre (or as Ris low might say 'little') of apple juice! It was fun, apple-y and juicy. We got to do some cider tastings as well. Yums. Our camera is completely f*$#ed. So no photos. But ahh if only I had a camera. Apples - a wonderful representation of autumn. The few weeks when the leaves turn crispy and fall down to the ground. Lots of rakes come out and start sweeping. It's been quite an apple-y 2 weeks with picking, sorting, pressing. I even baked an apple crumble myself for the first time in my life! Very easy.

It's crazy to remember how only a year ago, we moved into our little camden flat where we had a lone apple tree in our wee garden. And it burst into fruit in a week of us moving in which is really about now last year! (We moved in 3rd Oct last year). It was the first time I bit into an apple that only just fell from a tree. It was a pretty cool feeling. I've been having alot of those lately... that first experience of doing something you've never done before, and it etches a vivid memory of that precise moment forever and ever in my mind. And I was standing by the doorway of that little kitchen, I bit into the green apple, the crisp sweetness hit my tongue and I pulled it back into vision away from my mouth, looked at it, remembering the kitchen marble top in the background and with pure delight and amazement, I said ' Wow' this tastes friggin awesome! And what made it super sweeet, was that we didnt have to buy it with money! It was freeeee! weeeeeeee

Well, of course, nothing is really free. There's the cost of rental, soil, the original cost of buying the apple tree etc. But it felt nice that there wasnt a transaction of cash at the fruit level. I was 'closer' to my food that I would be if I bought it at Sainsbury. There was no orchard owner, no chemical fertilizer company, no machines to pick them up, no waster to wash them, no packer to pack them. No aeroplanes that fly them across oceans, no wooden crates needed to carry them in, no trucks to drive them to sainsbury, no staff to shelve them, no plastic bag manufacturer to package them. Just the apple tree a few feet from my door, the apple, and me. It is a quiet intimate feeling people have when eating the food we grow. The time & effort spent taking care of them from seed, to planting, to feeding it with good organic matter, sunlight & water. All the energy you put into it, you take it back when it goes into our bodies to nourish us. Being 'close' to your food doesnt just mean being physically close to them, but also in quite another level. It's not an emotional level, its something else. Could be spiritual? I think this is fundamentally why the foodies are the ones who want to grow their own food. It flows in your blood. The food we eat. amazing how people aren't bothered much about where it comes from eh? We've become so used to accept that it's ok to live your life at the end of long line of process and steps. The industrial age is at the most dangerous times now, the scariest thing being that majority of the world is oblivious to all that is so wrong! Just living our lives day by day, still accepting plastic bags at supermarkets, not recycling everything we can, eat junk food, because its so easy not to care. To ignore what doesnt matter right now...

What a rant... its only 7pm and its completely dark already. Summer is OVER. But this year, we're not feeling the depression of winter coming on. N-o-i-c-e.......:)