One of the greatest joys of living in upstate New York was the apple-picking. Midwest apples just aren't the same, and the apple-picking excursions I've been on here have been pretty disappointing. Spurred by bitterness, I decided that no one else should suffer as I have suffered. No one else should miss out on the joy of picking edibles from trees, no matter if they live in one of the largest cities in the US, no matter if it's the height of summer. I decided to create an orchard of my own!

But not just any orchard. An orchard with but one or two kinds of fruits is far too plebian for my tastes. Oh no. This orchard grows not one, not two, but TEN kinds of fruit. But creating a tree that will grow ten kinds of fruit proved rather harder than expected (we got them into the cages, but they just wouldn't mate). So instead, behold: ten fruits. Ten trees. One glorious city orchard.


(Note: Lovesmasher supplied the supplies and provided moral support, but in the end, I did the fruiting of the trees alone. This was the first task I've done alone in some time, and it felt weird. I felt itchy and uncomfortable. It was only after I got home that I realized that my issue was with perception. A few people behaving oddly in public seems so much more socially acceptable than a single person skulking around throwing things into trees and muttering to herself. I realized that I was afraid that I was being perceived as someone too weird to have friends. This is silliness! So I hereby promise to try to do more tasking alone, to try to get over this hang-up.)