Day 47: Day of the fruits.

My day started off with milking the goats. I'm okay with all of them--in getting milk out I mean. The first one, the alpha female, she gives everybody grief. So they warned me extra about her. But since I've been here I've found out that she loves to be petted--not in that I'm going to prison kind of way--and especially behind her ears right before her horns. Plus, I always give her bits of the fruit that I'm eating. The family is amazed that she is so patient with me. Lilah, "night," the second one is just so docile and easy. The third gives me the most grief. One night she jumped and would have landed in the milk pan if I had not held her up with my arm. She ain't light, either. The fourth is pretty easy, but her teats are so small that it is hard to aim. I cannot tell you how many times I've squirted milk onto my legs. I have the smoothest, silkiest one patch on my right leg from the milk.

Citrus is so delicious.

Not like fruits as in crazy people but as in the stuff we don't eat enough of. I walked around the orchard taking pictures of most of the trees. I realized later that I left off the dates and apricots, but there are no fruits to see. And I'm sure that there are other trees, too, but sometimes you get what you pay for.

There are few kinds of citrus; I'm not sure what there is except clementines, lemons, oranges, and pomelos.

The citrus grove reminds me of when we were kids and skipped school. We'd go run through the orange groves all day, feasting on the fruits, having dirt-clod fights, and swimming in the lake. What a youth I had in the world and have in my heart.

There are olive trees surrounding the entire grove. Plus they are growing before the border of each of the separate groves, of which there are four.


The citrus is at the far end. The apples and pears are next. Then there are the apricots, peaches, plumbs, nectarines. Finally, there are the figs, dates, pomegranates and more apples. Again, I'm sure I'm missing some of them, but this is what I have.

Pears.

I don't think I've ever eve seen a pear tree, so plucking these fruits was an extra treat. That they are delicious is only a bonus.

Apples. Yeah, there are lots of apples. It is a good thing that I like them. There are really sweet. The fruits here are a bit smaller because they are not pumped full of anything. The trees take in what they take in and the fruits are delicious for it.

I'm so excited for the plumbs. I've had a couple already, but they are not quite ready. Another day or two, perhaps, which is all I have left.

Then there are the pomegranates, which hang from the trees like Chinese lanterns during the new year's celebration. I've not had one yet, but one of the other volunteers did. She said it was great.

I really like peaches, but I've come to not like cutting them up, which I've been doing since the first week. They would be the fruit with the longest season, sheesh. (Lulu asked me what sheesh means. Try explaining that to a ten-year-old kid whose English is just passable as a second language.)

The carob trees are always nice to pluck from. The edible legumes, I had to look up what they are, are delicious. It is like eating a piece of candy, a nice cross between chocolate and honey--but not really either.

Mmmm. Have you ever had a fig outside of a Newton? Try one fresh off a tree! They are so good. There are not too many of them, and today Avi asked me not to eat them because of that. Oops. I don't feel a bit guilty, though, because they said eat what you want.

 I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the bag tree. The tree grows small brown bags that are big enough to fit an apple inside, as if to protect the apple from birds and bugs and such.

This is the ella tree--the date trees are on the left. The ella is related to the oak somehow, but I couldn't find any information on it. It is a wonderful place to find shade on a day when the sun has beaten me down. If I had the orchard like this one with a tree like this one, which I never would, I'd build a little platform under it for important meetings.

At some point during the day I caught the goats playing Queen of the Rock. Of course the alpha female won each bout, but that did not dissuade the others from playing. It was a great show that lasted about fifteen minutes. When I first stopped to watch the goats stopped to watch me. At first I thought that they just wanted food, but I now believe that they were embarrassed that I caught them playing.

And so the sun sets on my time here. I have been blessed and grown in so many ways. I've learned much and shed some extra fat. My muscles are bigger and my breath deeper. I will miss Bustan Arazuni.