October 14, 2003
Holmberg Orchards
We took Johann to a local orchard, Holmberg Orchards, on Saturday. At first he didn’t want to go. He packed his backpack with toys for show-and-tell with the ladies who fawn over him at the yarn shop. “No, that’s OK. You guys go ahead to the ‘chard. I’m going to the yarn store.” We convinced him to try going to the orchard and then decide whether or not he liked it. So, with a disgruntled toddler in tow, we started out on the day’s grand adventure.
Once we got there he became excited. There were bins full of multi-colored maize, gourds in all funky shapes and pumpkins. While we waited for the next wagon ride, he had fun making the gourds dance and choosing some to buy. On the ride up to the top of the orchard, Johann saw the pumpkin patch and immediately wanted to jump off and go get a pumpkin. We already have a little and big pumpkin at home and he was excited to add another one to our growing family of pumpkins. Now there could be one pumpkin to represent each one of us. He likes to get a Mommy, Daddy and Johann size one of many things we buy. That’s one of the ways he organizes things.
We picked apples first. On this trip we decided to try the Empires, Johnathans and Winesaps. Further down the hill were the Bosc pears. Eric lifted Johann up to reach the pears at the tops of the trees. After the newspaper article promoting the orchard’s pears appeared in the local paper, many other people decided to head out there as well and that was all that was left. We thanked Johann and told him without him we never would have gotten those pears. He beamed. Then we walked through the pumpkin patch. Johann chose a tall pumpkin. Next was picking raspberries. Once he knew what to look for, he shouted with glee every time he spotted more ripe raspberries, “Mommy, look! More raspberries!” Eric found Thai hot chili peppers and took some pictures while waiting for us.
By the time we finished picking what we wanted, we were back to the entrance. Eric took the token picture of Johann behind the wooden cutout background featuring a pumpkin and two spooky ghosts. It had been a great afternoon. Johann was free to run between the rows of trees. Once he got into it, he didn’t want to stop picking anything. He had the best time and said he understood why I wanted to go there. When it was time to go home, Johann wanted to stay. He said he wanted to come back and how soon could that be?
Later Johann asked Eric if he liked the gorgeous gourds, which Johann soon described as his “gourdeouses” for short. The gourds and pumpkins provided hours of imaginative play. We had to draw the line with gourds taking a bath with him, however. I’m glad we just went instead of succumbing to the mountains of work and chores we needed to get done. I knew Johann would enjoy the experience, but we unwittingly got much more out of it than we thought we would. On the drive home Johann said, “Mommy, I was proud to go to the orchard.” I said, “What do you mean? Do you mean you felt proud to pick the fruit yourself?” “Yes.” Ah, yes.