The Fruit Situation

Five years ago, ‘Let’s plant some fruit trees’, sounded like a good idea. Gerhard and I paid a visit to our local nursery and selected a few (small) plants. We were soon the proud parents of a miniature orchard comprising a variety of plants, including one tiny peach tree and an even smaller apricot tree. The trees grew (as plants do), and their branches currently reach well beyond the roof of our home.

The year 2020 can be described as one fraught with challenges, weird occurrences, and some surprising adventures. Our fruit trees clearly wanted a piece of the 2020 action and decided to pick this particular year to flourish. Early in September numerous pretty pink flowers signaled the onset of spring and promised fruit in the not too distant future. I didn't pay too much attention at the time - I had other things on my mind, not least of which was my very long 'to do' list as a result of the pending release of my book.

Towards the end of November, Gerhard remarked 'The trees made some fruit'. Again I didn’t pay much attention. ‘Cool’ I said to him when he entered the house with one smallish, green peach and two ripe apricots in his hands. ‘Yes,’ he said ‘Looks like they (the trees) are happy. I think there will be more fruit than last year’. (Last year we harvested 11 kilograms of apricots and just over 20 kilograms of peaches.)

‘Hmm’, I responded absently as I frowned at the computer screen in front of me. I was in the process of attending to my emails - fruit trees were not at the top of my priority list.

A week later, Gerhard appeared with more fruit in his hands. Both the peaches and the apricots looked ripe and ready to eat.

‘Have you seen the trees?’ he asked.

‘No?’ I replied. ‘Why, what’s wrong with them?’

‘No, nothing. There’s just a lot of fruit… Come look…’ He said, already on his way back out the door

I was soon staring at the trees with a look of shock (make that horror) on my face

A lot of fruit was an absolute understatement!

The trees had gone crazy, there were more apricots and peaches than I had ever seen in my life. More than the birds could eat, and definitely way more than Gerhard and I could eat. 

I admit I'd probably been avoiding thinking about ‘the fruit situation’. Avoidance was no longer an option, the trees were no longer to be ignored, in fact, we needed to pay immediate attention, or else the fruit would spoil.

I may have uttered a couple of swear words under my breath, the timing couldn't be any worse. I was already struggling to juggle the multitude of demands on my time. I recalled that dealing with the previous year's harvest had been a challenge - and this time around there was more than double the harvest!

I sighed. 

There was no running away from this situation, I'd just have to make a plan and try to fit, what promised to be a mammoth task, in amongst everything else I had on the go. It was time to unearth the preserving jars and dig out our jam recipe. 

Apricot Avalanche

Gerhard and I got to work picking (a never-ending amount of) ripe apricots. The peaches were still a little on the green side, and so we decided we would deal with those at a later stage. We passed handfuls of apricots over the wall to happy neighbours, and filled all of the fruit bowls we owned. We delivered bags of apricots to friends and I spent three consecutive evenings making jam. Over 20 kilograms of apricots later, we had enough jam to feed a smallish army. I felt rather proud of myself having deftly dealt with, what had felt like, an avalanche of apricots. 

Jam for days...

I would soon realise that the apricots had been the warm-up round. I knew that we'd need to start picking peaches soon, but a bad storm one evening resulted in an entire branch breaking off the peach tree. We could no longer delay the inevitable, although this time around, our small ladder was hopelessly inadequate to reach some of the higher branches of the peach tree. 

We most certainly needed a longer ladder to reach the rest of the fruit.  It was time to ask for help. 

The Ladder Run

I sent out an SOS to my running crew, in the hope that at least one of them perhaps owned a long ladder we could borrow for a short while. Of course, I promised plenty of fruit in return. I was relieved when I received a response - one of the guys had a long ladder and he was willing to lend it to us for a while. We made arrangements to meet at 17:00 the following evening. We agreed that I would meet him outside the boom gate of the security estate where Gerhard and I lived. I would collect the ladder from him and would provide plenty apricots in return. 

I arrived at our agreed upon meeting point at 17:00, and spotted him almost immediately. Dressed in a neon green running shirt, with a cap jammed on his head and with a very large ladder lying on the ground nearby, it would have been difficult to miss him. 

'Hi', I greeted him, looking around for his car

'Howzit' he replied, hefting the heavy ladder up to help me load it into the boot of my car.

'Where is your car?' I asked as I opened the back door of the car to help him manouvre the ladder into my vehicle.

'Nah. No car. I ran here.' He replied.

'With the ladder? Wow, uhm, ok. that couldn't have been much fun...'' I replied in astonishment.

'No, it was fine. I'm used to carrying things when I run. No worries.' He replied.

'Err, can I drop you off at home?' I offered as I handed him the large bag of fruit I had packed for him.

'No, no. Its not far, I'll run back' He replied, tying a secure knot in the top of the packet, and pushing start on his running watch. 'Cheers' he said as he set off at a trot.

'Úhm, ok, bye... I managed to reply, feeling more than a little amazed.

He waved at me with his free hand and soon disappeared from sight.

I shook my head and climbed into my car. 'Crazy, he is crazy.' I said to myself as I put my car into gear and prepared to drive the short distance back home.

Peach Palaver

Despite its somewhat bizarre arrival, the ladder was soon put to good use. Gerhard and I set to work picking fruit, this time armed with every single box, bucket, and container we could find in our house. The enormity of the harvest of peaches scared me, I wasn't quite sure what to do with so much fruit. This was a peach palaver of epic proportions (some 50 kilograms in fact).

A very small portion of the peach harvest

In desperation, I sent a text message to our neighbourhood chat group offering peaches for free. I also made a sign saying 'Peaches, FREE, Help yourself', and left a large box load at the end of our driveway. I spent another three nights peeling and preserving peaches, eventually calling on mom for help to deliver loads of peaches to family and friends. 

Sign made from the lid of a pizza box

I am definitely avoiding the jam aisle in the supermarket. In fact, I am most certainly avoiding any sort of fruit that looks like an apricot or a peach. At least for another year...

"The fruit of your own hard work is the sweetest"

~ Deepika Padukone