PanningForGold

Twenty minutes from our home sits Way Fruit Farm which has been owned by the same family for six generations. As the name suggests they grow fruit, but they are so much more. They carry vegetables and meat from local growers and farmers plus ciders and baked goods. They also have a sandwich shop and a gift type store that is always fun to peruse filled with teas, coffees, farmhouse furniture and crafts by local artisans.

In the fall they set up wagon rides for the kids, a trebuchet for the annual pumpkin toss. During the different growing seasons you can either go into the field and for a few cents less a bushel you can pick your own fruit or you can spend the extra few cents and purchase the stuff already picked. Can you guess which I choose?

So why, might you ask, am I sharing all this information with you? I know what you are thinking. An earlier post of mine managed to snag me a free meal at Denny’s because of the wonderful stuff I said about them, and perhaps now I am going to try for free fruit. While that would be nice and we really do like Way Fruit Farm this post is about to take a turn for the worse.

The good folks at the Farm happen to have a Facebook page. Who doesn’t? The other day I came across the following post from our friendly farmers:

Way Fruit Farm: “Apple Tree trimming Demo: Sat., March 26, 10:30am. Free! Bring your own hand trimmers to practice on our trees. Meet in lobby @ farm store and head to orchard across the road. Dress for cold & mud as both are a possibility. Bring anyone else not interested in trimming too! Our café is open for breakfast & lunch. Browse craft & home decor area, newly decorated for spring! Kids enjoy “Corn Bin” play area.”

Now you may be thinking, ‘that sounds like it could be fun’ and you may be right. I, however am a little more cynical I didn’t read fun into the above post, here is what I imagine went down in the Way household the other morning:

Way Fruit Farm Employee:

“Man! Time to prune and trim up those cursed apple trees, wouldn’t be bad if there were just a handful but there are so many. Up at the crack of dawn and not coming in from the fields till it is too dark to see, it is going to take weeks to prune the blasted trees.’

Reluctantly the faithful employee bends down to put on his old boots, he sighs as he pulls tightly on the laces and then it strikes him, strikes him like a bolt of lightning.

‘I know, we can teach other people how to trim apple trees, not only that we can have them bring their own equipment, not only that we can have them practice trim our trees cutting the time it usually would take in half.’

He grins to himself and knows his employers the Way’s will simply love the idea. Perhaps, he thinks to himself, it is going to be a great day after all. Then another though strikes him. This thought strikes him so hard he has to sit and laugh.

‘And then when it is time for the harvest, we can let them pick their own apples and charge them for the pleasure!”

As my friend Murray Sawchuck likes to say, “livin’ the dream…livin’ the dream.