Post 26/2024 Goshen Indiana. Bought it. Cut it. Eating it. The cantaloupe is middling in ripeness, taste, and satisfaction. The grapes and cherries we had for lunch, too, were less than stellar. Kind of what one expects when the local harvest awaits its season.

I’m not complaining, just making an observation. I’m enjoying this iteration of fresh fruit all the same. It’s a contrast to the ripe fruits and vegetables we had growing up on a farm. We had most of everything in the gardens, plus wild strawberries along the road ditch and chokecherries and crab apples for jam. My aunt Selma worked in sorting peaches at an outlet in Shakespeare, Ontario; peaches that had come from the Niagara region. Sweetness dribbled in every bite.

Our cool cellar larder was filled with all kinds of canned jars of fruits, vegetables, and pork sausage. For some crazy reason, my siblings and I would from time to time rave about store bought peaches. At least these were not ones we had to help peel, cut up, steam and carry to the cellar. So be it. Some things in life get turned on their head.

“Ripeness is all,” is a memorable phrase from Shakespeare’s tragedy play King Lear. That means more than fruit being fully grown and ready to eat.

In King Lear, Edgar tells his blinded and despairing father Gloucester: “Men must endure / Their going hence, even as their coming hither. Ripeness is all” (Act 5, Scene 2). It has to do with the inevitability of human mortality. We age and must go on. One commentator says, “you cannot choose the time of our death, any more than the time of our birth. It will happen when the time is right.” So we balance one with the other, action with acceptance.

Well, a middling cantaloupe has taken me on a journey. Not every thing in life needs or can to our greatest satisfaction. There are times, though, when we hit it on the head. The lesson to be learned is to enjoy those moments and not despair when things go less than swimmingly. Keep a balance. Keep going. Know that mortality is a natural part of life.

Class reunion

Marty’s high school class had a reunion on a hot day last week. We met at an Amish home near Shipshewana for a haystack lunch, along with a choice of pecan or cherry custard pie and home made ice cream. Delicious.

Classmate Monty and a few others organized the event, which included moving to the Shipshewana Area Historical Museum for each one to bring their beings and doings up-to-date. Monty and Ginger stayed overnight with us and we went to The Olympia Candy Kitchen for breakfast. Again tasty and fine visit. You can find an oral history video, in which I did the interview, about the Olympia on YouTube.

Ants, an army for the good

We had some ants recently, but seem to have taken care of them. On our walk home from breakfast at Cabin Coffee, we came across a colony of ants. We paused just long enough to watch them and take a few pictures. So how does one balance revulsion at an invasion of ants with their essential role in aerating the soil, to allow water and oxygen to reach plant roots? I’ll tell the ants there’s no aeration needed in our house and smile at them out and about.

Blueberries. Did someone say early blueberries are ready for picking? I’m not a great picker, but I’ll gladly pick up picked ones fresh from the field. Sweet corn, tomatoes, radishes, beets, and more all in good season.

Can those peaches when and if you can. Give the ants their proper due. Wait for a juicy cantaloupe. Mind your balance. Thanks for reading. Adieu.

-John