There's a story from my childhood: That when I was about 6 years-old, my mom saw a fortune teller at a flea market one Saturday and asked the woman to read my palm. She grabbed my left hand and squinted, traced some lines on my palm with her fingers, looked up and said "He's going to be a businessman."
At which point I started crying, and shouted, "But I want to be a farmer!"
It sounds like me.
Probably neither of those professions will really come to pass. But sometimes I wonder if being a farmer is still in the cards. I've found about four apple trees producing this year, and if I had to guess I'd say I might get 40 pounds this year.
I don't feel like a farmer because I certainly didn't do anything to help the trees grow - most of them I didn't realize existed until this summer. One is a fantastic old-growth, the trunk twisted and its branches out of control. I'm slowly pruning it and cutting down the brush around it, including some pines blocking it out.
But there is something about seeing the apples appear, or the beans I did grow, or the spinach and beets. It's incredibly rewarding and fulfilling to see something grow. Next year I'd like to try and really grow a small portion of my food - nothing to crazy, but a start. This year I was really just playing around, seeing what I could grow easily. Next year I'd like to work a bit more at it.
Hard to believe summer is winding down.
