Clean Fruit and Dirty Fruit
The first trees we planted at our home were apple trees. We knew commercially grown apples were full of invisible chemicals, and so we thought, why not grow our own. So we bought some Red Delicious, Fuji, McIntosh, Honey Crisp, and Granny Smith. We just let them grow without any spray to see what would happen. They grew, but not very well. They seemed to be prone to disease, and the apples never turned out like they do in the store.
"It is no measure of health, to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society."
Well with time we learned about not only the lack of genetic diversity in apples, but also about the tremendous amount of chemical controls that are needed to produce blemish free fruit. But this really didn't sink in until a late summer bike ride. We were on a bike path in Hilliard and noticed all the different apple trees that lined the path.
"A mind stretched around a new idea never regains its original dimensions."
These were wild apples, of every shape, size, and color. So much diversity and so many apples. Of course we stopped at every apple tree that looked promising and tried the apples. Some tasted terrible, but some were absolutely amazing. And sure they weren't all perfect, they had some blemishes, but they were natural, uncontrolled bundles of fruit. Clean fruit.
"When you remember how to listen, everything and everybody becomes your teacher."
