The Ancestor Connection
My love of gardening comes from my parents and before that my grandparents. There is definitely an ancestor connection to caring for green things. And this year I can’t look at my tiny espaliered apple tree without thinking of my father.
My dad tended apple and pear trees for as long as I can remember. We had lots of apples in the fall as I was growing up, which my mom crafted into endless pies and other treats. And this year, in my father’s honor, I am harvesting my first ever apples. This little five year old tree is (finally) loaded with fruit.
Liberty Apples
My dad grew a Macintosh variety and there was a lot of work involved in keeping the apples free of insects and diseases. Liberty is the variety that I am growing. It has a Macintosh flavor but was bred to be resistant to scab, mildew, fire blight, and cedar apple rust. (The name Liberty means you are mostly free of worrying about those diseases.)
As a bonus to all the disease resistance, the Liberty apple is self pollinating. Most apple varieties need a different apple for cross pollination. But not Liberty. This tree is a great choice for a small back yard.
Ancestors as Mindfulness Focus
I firmly believe that gardening connects us to plants, the earth, and also to other gardeners and the plant tenders who came before us. My immediate focus with the apple connection is with my own family. But apples have a long history of being gathered and tended for fruit. So when we consider ancestors, we know there have been millions of individuals who nurtured the early apple trees and helped create the fruit we have today.
And it is not just about humans. The trees have their own unique histories and ancestors. Wild apples existed two to ten million years ago in Central Asia. Certainly humans selected for flavor and sweetness, but the trees were active players in their path to today’s apples.
This is a week to contemplate the ancestors, the countless entities, human and otherwise, who got us to now. There is a connection to all the things that came before us if we take time to notice. We can cultivate an awareness that we are part of the thread, notice how others have shaped us, and appreciate the gifts we’ve been given.
For more information on mindfulness focus words click here.
More about the Liberty Apples
Edible Landscaping – Liberty Apple
Specialty Produce – Liberty Apple
As we continue spinning the thread becoming the ancestors of all that follows.
This post led me down the path of memory.
Lovely.
It’s strange to think/know that we will be the ancestors! Thank you!