It must have been a Winesap apple.  That infamous piece of fruit, long ago in the land of Eden.  It had to be a Winesap apple, or at least something similar.  I mean, who could blame her.  The amazing taste of those wine-colored, tree-ripened, autumn-crisp apples brought me back, woke me up, bowled me over.

I had forgotten how heavenly an apple could be.  Years ago, I stopped eating them.  Supermarket selections, picked too soon, ripened with ethylene gas, they never acquire that full, rich, completely finished flavor, sweet and tangy rather than tart, aged to perfection like fine wine.  I gave up.

Then I visited my sister for Thanksgiving, and she had a carton full of burgundy-colored Winesap apples, sold by the farmer, straight from the tree.  Gorgeous.  I had to eat one, and ooh, la, la.  I had to eat another.  It had been a long time.  I begged for a few to take home, 100 miles away.  They were everything that an apple should be.  It was true love, deep, like a rich, ruby red.

Short and oh, so sweet

But now they are gone.  Gone!  Gone and I can’t find them anywhere.  It has been many months, and a long, hard winter.  I keep hoping that someday I will run into them at the supermarket, see them there across the room, waiting for me, and I will take them home, and all will be as it was.

Parting is such sweet sorrow…. Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Poetry helps.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?  Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

Alas, will I ever see them again?  Maybe in the fall, when apples are in season?  Maybe at a roadside stand on the way to the shore, or at the farmers’ market under the train tracks?   I will keep hoping.  I will keep searching.  I will think of Eve, and I will understand.

Surely the apple is the noblest of fruits. Henry David Thoreau, Wild Apples

To love and desire, to the color red, to all the requisites of the day….

May you have the happiest Valentine’s Day ever!

xoxo

Laura

© Copyright 2011, Laura J. Rongé, Ciel Bleu Media, healthiveg.com.  All rights reserved. Disclaimer.  This article is not intended as medical, nutritional, or other professional advice.