When I was young, my rural, Pennsylvania German grandparents owned a farm and two homes. They rented the “older” home where they had originally lived and continued to live in the “new” home a few houses down the road. While the new home had amazing “new” perks, such as a huge barn, garage, gas pump, and gardens, a huge kitchen for baking and cooking, and formal dining room and living room, the quaint, old farmhouse home still bore all of the fruit-bearing trees.

Each year, the entire extended family would gather for “apple picking” day. They would bring their ladders and bushel baskets, and everyone would pick the apples. Many would be stored in the cold cellar to be used throughout the season, but each family would take a number of them home as well to use for eating, baking, canning, an…