My Lucky Day

On Wednesday's I take eggs into the hospital where Gina works to sell.  Gina started selling my eggs to her fellow coworkers last year when we were on vacation and has kept it up.  I stopped at Renee's house first to pick up 2 dozen of eggs she had to sell.  Gina has more customers than eggs and Renee just started raising chickens this year and when she has extra eggs Gina will sell hers also.  On my way home I stopped at the store to pick up a couple of things and then headed home.  On my way home I pass a large cemetery and noticed that on the road there were lots of some type of fruit.  I pulled over and drove through the cemetery and saw that the fruit was crab apples.  There were at least 50 crab apple trees of various sizes and colors throughout the cemetery.  Someone was cutting the grass there so I went up and asked if it was alright to pick some and he said I could have as many as I wanted and that across the street at the other part of the cemetery the crab apples were larger.  He said people had already picked some and wasn't sure how many were left.  I went over and found 2 huge trees of the larger crab apples and filled a pot that Renee had borrowed and gave me back today and also a paper bag that I had in the Escape.
On my way home I went through the little village by our house because I saw a sign that said "Garage Sale".  I didn't find the sale but as I was going through the village I noticed a peach tree and apple tree and someone was out cutting the grass.  I've read on blogs where people will stop when they see gardens or fruit trees that look like the owner is done picking the fruit and has asked to glean it.  I am not the type of person who would stop and ask a total stranger if I could glean their garden or orchard BUT today for some strange reason I pulled over and the lady who was cutting the grass came over and I asked her if I could glean the trees when they were done and she said they don't even pick the stuff and I could have it all.  I think at that point I was in total shock; first that I asked and second her answer.  I got out of the vehicle and she said she wasn't sure when the stuff would be ready so we went over to look at the trees.  I saw 1 pear tree, 1 green apple tree, 1 red apple tree, 1 huge peach tree.  I picked a pear and both kinds of apples to try and looked at the peaches.  They need more time and she said I should come back next week to check the fruit to see if it was ready.  As we were talking her husband drove up and she proceeded to tell him about me getting the fruit and he said he had 1 question for me and it was "can I bake a peach pie"?  Of course I said you bet I can.  One thing lead to another and I said something about having chickens and he asked if I had brown egg layers and I said yes.  He wants to start buying some.  We talked more and he asked me what I would do with grapes and I said I would make jelly.  He said on the far side of his yard he had green and black grapes I could have.  I was then telling him about picking wild blackberries and he said he also had blackberries and they were huge.  He said he picked a 5 gallon bucket of them and gave them to a lady this year.
Next week I plan on baking a peach pie, a raspberry pie and taking both up to them along with a dozen of brown eggs.
I almost forgot, when I was there she gave me 10 large tomatoes and 2 cucumbers from her garden.   Here are some good people who have stuff they don't want or are tired of and are glad to see someone use it.  After I asked her about gleaning the trees I told her I can't believe I just asked this.  God works in such mysterious ways.

Apples and pear from a house about a mile from our house where I am going to glean.

Crab apples from the cemetery, ping pong ball so you can see how big they are; I will be making some crab apple jelly tomorrow.

Crab apples from the cemetery, ping pong ball so you can see how big they are; I will be making some crab apple jelly tomorrow.


I guess these are crab apples; I always thought crab apples were smaller.