Plum Crazy

 

One of our family traditions that everyone enjoys

is trekking south about 2 hours every fall to forage for wild fruit. 

Choosing a glorious fall day, 

we load up the van with everything we could possible need for about a week, and set off. 

Some years we go in September, when the blackberries are still ripe and the apples green, 

but this year, we waited until the blackberries were gone and the apples ripe...

but what we found in abundance was plums. 

Oh we had fun!  

The road winds along the mountains and comes out on a rolling plain, 

where our van became a roller coaster ride and, very noisy as the children yelped and squealed 

as daddy drove along up, then down, then up, then down...for miles.  

Finally we wind down the draw to our favored spot,

deer scattering in front of us, and squirrels scolding us for invading their privacy

as we unload and head down the trail 

with baskets, boxes and various containers for apples, rose hips and plums.

To me, this is just of the many lures of living a country life.

Selecting our way through the brambles of blackberry bushes,

and along a path sheltered by great clusters of apple trees, 

prolific rose bushes everywhere, 

we discover that rose hips are hard and painful picking.  

Hopefully the jelly will be worth the pursuit.

The little ones are captivated the sheer numbers of plums shook to the ground for the family to gather.
Equally enthralled, 

I am envisioning plum butter, dried plums, canned plums, plum pudding 

and perhaps I will take a stab at an apple/plum pie. 

Practically giddy with delight at the provision of organic, free fruit for our family, 

plus the chance to take pleasure in a full day outdoors together rambling through the woods,

this day will go down in my journal as one of the most idyllic.

When all is said and done, our handsome daddy shoos us toward the van for the trip home, 

accompanied now by thorns, cleavers, burrs and scratches. 

Still, we ride contentedly back up the hill,

 back over the rolling plains, 

back around the winding mountain road, 

straight to the lodge where a pot of soup is waiting on the wood stove.

"O taste and see that the Lord is good;

blessed is the man that trusts in Him. 

The young do lack, and suffer hunger; 

but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing."

Psalm 34: 7-10

The good things of the Lord are all around us just waiting for us to "pick."

His marvelous creation, everywhere evident of a loving Heavenly Father.

Life and health with the hope of heaven hereafter.

Friends and family, for we were made for relationship.

And the list goes on and on...if you have a list, 

and I hope you do,
it is a wonderful way to acknowledge- and thus find joy in the littlest things.