This summer has been bountiful for fruit trees around town. Where we had millions of blossoms a few months ago, now we have apples dropping to the street everywhere you look.
I took advantage of one such windfall myself. I pass a vacant — for sale — house every day that has a huge crop of bright red apples, and today I pulled into the driveway and filled a mesh shopping bag in a few minutes. Probably got 10 pounds or more, all fine, no worm holes or coddling moths.
Got ’em home and realized peeling them was going to be a chore, so I put out a WANTED notice on FreeCycle for one of those hand-crank peeler/corers.
Wonder of wonders, someone loaned me one, and I quickly prepared 6-8 apples, with some tasting help from my staff. I have to say, those things are pretty amazing. Once you get the peeling blade setup, it makes short work of an apple. You end up with a beautiful spiral cut apple, ready to chop or whathaveyou. Might not be a bad purchase.
Made a crust — always a hit or miss proposition for me — and after the requisite chill time, then rolling/cutting/assembly, the whole affair just came out of the oven.
Smells awfully good and will make a fine breakfast. I suspect I didn’t put enough filling, but it’s not like I won’t have another chance. And another chance to make a crust will be welcome.
And if you think you are looking at a similar waste of good fruit, you may be permitted, if not entitled to save them from rot/rats, etc. I am not a lawyer, but the principle of usufruct deals with this: Latinate readers will note the roots of “use” and “fruit” in there, so this is quite germane.