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Huck Hensley's avatar

What a wonderful, touching essay. Thank you.

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Paula Shatkin's avatar

Hi Sarah. This is Paula from your local Slow Food chapter. We operate the Free Sebastopol Apple Press in Sebastopol every year from August through October and have been working to save local apples, especially the Gravensteins, for years. We have a great group of volunteers and we help press over 50,000 pounds of folks' apples, for free. . We love your article and would love for you to join us. please write to me at info@slowfoodrr.org. I can meet you for coffee and tell you more. would love to meet you.

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Dan Gurney's avatar

Lovely essay! Paradoxically, letting go is a good way to stay connected, sometimes. The best place to store excess abundance from nature is in the bellies of your neighbors. Your neighbors will prove capable of turning “your” (actually Nature’s, right?) apples, zucchini, kale, persimmons into gratitude, belonging and connection that all of us hunger for.

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Kent Jenkins's avatar

We hold onto ideals. We say that some things get better with age, yet we don't mean this in absolute terms. That bottle of wine will go bad, but there is a period when it will be most appealing to drink. What trips us up is looking at the individual. Apples have seasons. If we care for the land and the tree, we will have apples every year. Yet, a particular apple has a finite capacity to carry the work of apples. When we see the infinite in the finite, we are able to let go.

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Sheina Curtis's avatar

Hi Sara, I so relate to your issues on letting go. Thanks for sharing. Your quest to find homes and uses for your neighborhood’s apples reminds me of a beloved neighbor who does the same for our neighborhood, though she’s perhaps perfected the art of letting go. Maybe you’d enjoy meeting her? She also has a love for Waldorf Kindergartens. As do I. If you’d like to share some apples and your apple song next autumn at Sebastopol Charter’s Waldorf Kindergartens, let me know. scurtis@sebastopolcharter.org. I try to use local organic produce in our Kindergarten snacks when possible. Warmly, Sheina

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Franny Minervini-Zick's avatar

Really enjoyed your Essay Sara! Wonderfully written and fun to read. I didn’t know you are a writer! ❤️

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