The Apes of Wrath

This week we were tipped off by my sister that there were apricots that were going to waste near her house. We asked the elderly couple about them, and were told that we should take as many as we could (they hated cleaning the things up off the ground, and had had all that they could use).

It was a short drive away, so we went early Saturday morning and picked a lot of apricots (I am estimating 75 lbs). It took 3 hrs and was pretty easy work. Apricots just want to be picked. They were small but beautiful. The kids ate and ate all of the apricots that they wanted, and we still didn't even clear off a quarter of the tree.

The apricots were very sweet, and had thin skins. We decided to blend them, flash freeze them, and to make smoothies out of them for the rest of the year. The first time that we tried to process so many apricots we ended up blending it up and using it for smoothies, and it worked well, so this time we decided to do the same. We also ate a lot, dehydrated a decent amount, and have a lot left over for more consumption.

Whenever we put a bag of apricot puree in the freezer, I like to label it 'Ape', and ask the Truelets "What puts the 'Ape' in Ape-ricot?"

We have tried apricot jam a few times, however it never turns out right for us, so we decided against it this year. Mrs True adds that she hates canning stuff in the dog days of summer and hearing up the kitchen to sweltering.

We also have two sad stories this week: the first is the Sunflower Fiasco. One of our sunflowers (the biggest one) finally lost all of the yellow off of its face, and I decided that it was time to harvest it. Apparently you don't just do that, because the seeds were all empty. It looked like it was going to be an amazing harvest, but it ended up being only a learning experience. In the future, we will harvest sunflowers only as directed to by the internet (which is to say when the back of the flower is brown).

We have one sunflower that is taller than the roof of our house right now. I really am beginning to wonder where these seeds came from.

The second sad story is a tale with a moral. We were sitting at home when out Bishop knocked on the door. He was holding something to his chest, and when I came out to talk to him he turned his back so that the kids couldn't see what he was holding as he asked me (showing me a glance of it as he turned) if I wanted to take care of a baby duck.

He said that he saw it on the side of the road, and it was lost, so he took it home, but didn't know what to do about it. He thought of us since we have goats and chickens. Now, Mrs. True loves all intelligent mammals, but I only love animals that are useful in a utilitarian way. If this duck were intelligent or useful (read edible) we would happily welcome it into our home, however a baby duck does nothing for either of us.

We took the duck more because it was polite than because we wanted it, but we have already posted an ad on a local bulletin board offering it to anyone that wants it. Worst case scenario it will be gone on Tuesday because someone already offered to take it on Tuesday if we still had it then.

The moral of this story is that when you are obviously taking care of a farm in a suburban setting, people can't help but notice and will assume that you know everything about all animals.

Finally, Mrs. True has been reading Anticancer: A New Way of Life recently. She isn't reading it because we have any cancer, just that she is very interested in eating healthy. If you read this book you will learn that my last statement is not actually true, apparently everyone has cancer in them all of the time, and most of our bodies fight it off all the time as well.

The book is written by a MD (in psychiatry) that got a brain tumor and decided to learn more about cancer so that he could prevent himself from getting it again. He recommends eating less sugar, more fruits and vegetables, less processed foods, and more turmeric, ginger, green tea, and garlic.

Aside from the green tea we do pretty good at following his diet already (His listed spices are some of my favorite spices anyway, and we love veggies and fruits and avoid most processed foods). The big change that we would have to make if we were to follow his eating recommendations would be to eat more small fish instead of large fish. Apparently anchovies are great for you. Who would have known?