It is an eerie site to see, to tromp through abandoned orchards with the fruit trees still bearing, the fruit not picked, and for whatever the reason the owners and designers of the property not there to see the wonder of what they have created. I have seen abandoned avacado orchards and orange groves in San Diego, Ca., and family orchards with pears, grapes, figs, and pomegranates on condemned farmlands in S. Carolina. One day I came across a Tennessee Valley Authority backhoe whacking a pear tree and capturing the falling pears in the worker's hard hats. This was in Franklin Co., in NW Alabama. The old grandma, sitting on the front porch, was cheering them on. I stopped for a chat, and she gave me her recipe for pear preserves--made every year from the harvest of that same Kefir pear tree.
I guess it is all a reminder that when you plant a food forest, it is for generations to come. It makes us a part of our own history.
