Feeding the Spirit at MN Harvest Apple Orchard Near Jordan, Minnesota

Kasey and Jayvyn invited me to visit the MN Harvest Apple Orchard near Jordan in southeastern Minnesota for my birthday a couple of months ago.  Well, heck yeah I went.

I believe in feeding the spirit.  I'm not sophisticated enough to meditate or digest self-help books, but I am able to raise my vibration to a whole new level by just plain being in the presence of nature.  Of course, I haven't always appreciated being in the midst of nature.  Back when I was a kid, nature meant walking miles of fields with the sun beating down while we picked up rocks, or pulled stubborn weeds, or detassled corn.

There were couple of years we also had huge pickle patches. Well, cucumbers actually, the pickle part came later.  For all my complaining about crawling among dew-wet cucumber vines, getting those tiny, invisible thorns worked into my fingertips, and dragging my muddy burlap gunny-sack through the rows, at the end of the day my dad made it all seem like a game. 

Dad would haul us kids, with our cucumber harvests, down to the Gedney pickle-sorting station in Wanda, Minnesota.  One by one our gunny-sacks were emptied into the old sorter and we would watch with baited breath while the old machine put up a  racket shaking and shimmying and finally spitting our cucumbers out the chutes, neatly separated into different sizes. 

The smallest were the most valuable.  One by one, we each got paid for exactly what our sack of cucumbers was worth.  I hope God puts a big ol' star next to Mr. Frerick's name for being such a good sport about counting our payments out, separately, for each of us. It took up a good deal of his time.

With our pockets full of crinkled bills and coins, we'd pile back into the station wagon and dad would take us to Chris' Cafe in our tiny hometown of Wabasso, and we'd deliberate whether a float, or a malt, or a coke and french fries was the best possible purchase for that day. I always fretted that one of my brothers was going to order something just a little better than what I got.

Well!  Enough of that. I think my point is that spending time in nature, whether we're working or playing is good for us.  It's just that I prefer the playing part.  And not even playing so much as just being.  Maybe just being with a cup of coffee laced with heavy whipping cream, and a slice of MN Harvest Apple Orchard pie.  Even better, spending time in nature with someone we love. Now that's what I call feeding the spirit. Happy birthday to me.  Thanks Kasey and Jayvyn.