happy friday | 10.19.12

today, i'm going on a field trip to portland nursery with oliver's class.

every year they put on an extensive apple tasting and dazzle you with all the types of apples that exist.

so, it's officially a happy apple friday!

the fifth graders at sunnyside

learn quite a bit about apples.

 a few weeks ago,

we took another field trip here:

we visited their orchard,

used the apple press to make cider,

(they say the trick to the best cider is to use different types of apples together.)

 we made applesauce

and learned about grafting.

 oliver was able to assist on grafting a branch together.

it almost made me teary to watch.

i didn't really know much about grafting or really even that it was a common practice.

one solid apple tree's root system can grow and support different types of apple branches.

amazing.

you can cut a branch off it's tree,

glue and tape it to another branch

and it will survive.

i think people are grafted together like that.

makes me especially think of my dear friends who are adopted

or have adopted a child.

that apple trunk gives life to the branch regardless.

it's very life steadily flows out to the branches

sustaining them

without another thought of how they got there.

we can learn so much from nature.

for example, did you know that in order to get the big apples,

you must prune the tree?

you have to take the smaller apples out so that the tree isn't doing too much work.

um. i can relate.

when you do prune the small apples out,

the apples left become that much sweeter.

okay. makes sense.

are you getting this?

there are definitely some lessons to learn here.

at the very least,

i'm feeling like pie should be in the schedule this weekend, aren't you?

happy friday!

and happy fall harvest!!

xo.

ps. a little shout out to my dear keri:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KASE!
so thankful for you!