The Adventures of Paula and Renee

Renee and I had to go somewhere this morning and she came a little early.  We went to one of the houses where we gleaned white peaches and picked a few more white peaches and visited with the lady who lives there.  From there we headed to our appointment and of course we saw several apple trees and a huge pear tree.  We stopped at the house with the pear tree and Renee went up to the house and asked about gleaning the tree.  His front yard was covered with pears so it was real evident that he didn't pick them.  Renee hardly got the question out and he said we could have all we wanted and he even had a fruit picker we could use so we could get them out of the higher branches.  We said we would pick them off of the ground first and we always ask if they want the bad fruit that is on the ground picked up and put somewhere.  Some people have us put them by the tree trunk and most say to just leave them.  There had to be 400 pears on the ground and he said that was not necessary that he was going to mow the yard today and the lawn mower would chop them up nicely.  We picked a lot from the ground and then used his tree picker (got to get one of those) and we picked some from the tree.  We would have picked more but we had to get to our appointment.  While we were picking he was talking to us about different things and he told us he was retired and he used to can and we talked about canning different things.  I asked if he had any canning jars that he wanted to sell and he said he did.  After picking he took us to his garage where he showed us all his canning stuff.  He had lots of jars with the most being old blue Ball jars.  We picked out the non vintage ones and settled on a price and we ended up with 30 quarts and 60 pints and we will divide them between us.  He tried to sell us the old ones but the price was more than we wanted to pay.  He tried to sell us other things and was a very friendly guy.  He told us to come back to get more pears when we had time and if we had a truck we could just drive it in the yard and pick from it.  We told him we would and also to think about selling some of the old jars at a lower price.  It was fun visiting with him and I told him he was a character and I enjoyed the visit while picking.  His wife still works and he is retired and I think he is a little lonely.

He mentioned that he liked peaches when we were talking so when we came home I canned a pint of white peaches and a pint of yellow peaches to take to him tomorrow along with a pint of peach jam.   I enjoy sharing the things I can with others.  Renee and I have met a lot of nice people gleaning and everyone of them are happy that someone can use the fruit.  When I worked, I worked in a one person office where I talked to people on the phone but rarely in person and am enjoying the interaction with others.

A down side for me to the day was Renee had a job interview and got the job.  My fellow picker and canning helper has to work.  Derek is in kindergarten this year so she said it was time she got back to the working world.  She has 2 boys, 1 in kindergarten and 1 a freshman in high school.   Tomorrow we are going back to the pear house and driving our truck so we can pick from the higher branches and if we are lucky he will sell us some of his old jars.  I would like some of them to put the items I dehydrate in and display them.
Later, take care.