This little guy outside my window one morning helped me maintain perspective when I was besieged by fruit. All the various types of fruit that our land graciously provides over the summer waged an elaborate and calculated offensive on my kitchen and my sanity. I almost died.

As a defensive measure I acquired new weaponry in the form of a cider press. Brilliant maneuver on my part. We canned, I baked and we ate lots of fruit raw. In the end we triumphed and I have a freezer full of breads, a pantry full of jams, and a freezer full of the most amazing fresh pear cider imaginable.

I finally found a paw paw recipe everyone loves. It’s actually a cake and has a brown sugar frosting so I guess I’m not shocked. I also baked a fig coffee cake that was excellent.
To be honest, it was actually a partial defeat. There was so much fruit that I just didn’t get around to harvesting and picking across all the different types (pears that fermented on the trees, figs that were devoured by bugs, etc). I did the best I could but I still have guilt for wasting the tremendous gift I’m given every year. Oh well. As one of my favorite quotes I heard from one of my favorite prophets says:

“Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, ‘I’ll try again tomorrow’”

Maybe for farmers it’s a little voice that says, “I’ll try again next season.”