Review, Revision, Edit and Update
This episode also took me back several years ago to my time spent part each summer working on a fruit stand in Kelowna, BC (Hazeldell Orchards). Thank you, Allen and Wendy for all that you taught me and the laughter you shared with me!
When I glanced at the word count this morning, (1034 words) I settled in for a long study. Pleasantly surprised with the improvement this episode demonstrated, I really only did some minor wording changes within a sentence or two.
The Care and Management of Fruit Trees
Dez pulled up at Matt’s garage where two cars and a couple of pickups were parked. The attendance was limited to six, two speakers and Matt. Nine people comfortably within the limits for social gatherings. In Matt’s large front yard, he had well spaced metal folding chairs facing a make-shift podium. Fortunately they had a windless, slightly cool summer day for the beginning of this week long event. Hopefully the whole week would have good weather, but should the weather start turning bad, the group would be moved into a quanset behind the garage. All the equipment had been moved outside, giving the group ample spacing.
Dez felt like a real outsider. She caught bits of conversation between orchardists that had obviously known each other for quite sometime. Conversations about grafting, pruning, and starch-iodine tests. Dez wondered why they were here if they already knew about these things. She was curious about it all, but the starch-iodine test really intrigued her. From what she could gather it had to do with testing ripeness.
Just as she was about to enter the conversation, Matt called the workshop to order. Spying Dez in the small group, he nodded to her, smiled and continued with his introductions. “Good morning group. We’re a little bit smaller this year but restrictions say to keep groups under ten people. Just some housekeeping. First the Covid19 questionnaire ………” Dez listened and replied as necessary but was anxious to get going on learning about what to do. The next speaker was an orchardist talking about what was needed to keep a healthy orchard, besides watering. Dez’s mind wandered often, the morning grew warm and her eyelids heavy. There was a short break for water or juice and stretching their legs, but the next speaker brought out a chalk board and Dez was able to take notes. The group was assured that there would be a Q&A period at the end, so there were time for questions. After a short lunch break, the group re-convened at the front of the orchard. They were split into two groups. Each group was led by one of the speakers. The first group started down an outside row of trees. The second group waited until they were six feet away from that first group before moving onward. It gave Dez a different perspective of her own orchard. She could see places where some kind of damage had occurred, like frost, old pruning cuts, and so much more. She had just seen her apple trees as any other trees. Now they were individuals with history right in their bark and the apples that they grow. Some trees already were bearing fruit. The speaker leading the groups would reach out, pull down carefully on the fruit and demonstrate the starch-iodine test. Before their eyes, the pulp of the apple turned yellow with a bit of dark purple. “This apple is not ripe. If it had turned black that would have been marked it as ripe and ready. So for each tree, an apple is sacrificed to determine ripeness of a specific section of your orchard.”
At the beginning of the day, Dez was almost ready to leave, feeling uncomfortable with her newness to orcharding. By noon, she was curious and had questions. At the end of a long and very interesting day, Dez was ready to get back to ‘her’ orchard and inspect it tree by tree. At a table set up with more brochures and some books about orchards, Dez stopped, picked up one each of the six brochures. She was choosing which book to take, when she heard Matt call out her name. “Dez. What did you think of today?”
“I was a bit scared this morning, but as the day wore on I just really loved all the information. My brain is stuffed full. And this is just the first day! Thank you, Matt, for referring me to the Fruit Growers. I am so tempted to get out to the orchard tonight before I go home, but better not. I’ve got notes to review, supper to eat and a good sleep so I can be ready for tomorrow. What’s on the agenda for tomorrow, Matt?” Dez felt like she couldn’t stop talking.
“You’ve got the agenda haven’t you? If not I’ll get you one. But tomorrow is not quite as long because we covered a lot of the housekeeping things today.” Matt was pleased with Dez’s response. This was the first time he had hosted one of these workshops. He had been quite nervous.
“Of course I do - I forgot. It’s in the goody bag that we each got at the beginning with all the info that would be covered. Matt, would you like to come in for supper when you’ve ………. no, you have a lot to do for this. I’ll have you in for supper once this is all over. Thanks again, Matt.” Dez, sounding like a school girl, could feel herself blushing. She and Matt had history. “I’m just going to get on home, Matt and I’ll see you in the morning.” Dez hurried to her car, alone in front of Matt’s garage. With just a little wave to Matt, she backed out, turned around and drove off. Matt was left alone in his yard with a smile on his face.
“I am always doing that which I cannot do,
in order that I may learn how to do it.”
~ Pablo Picasso
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