6. Harvesting

It was another of those busy, busy Autumn days, the sky was clear but the air was crisp. Both Jaden and Vervain were out in the orchard, filling bushel baskets. They needed to get as much fruit off the trees as they could, before the heavier frosts came. A few days before, they'd had a very chilly night, and come morning, Jaden had noticed there was a lot more fallen fruit than usual. The fruits on the ground were mostly mushy, and they worried about bugs.

Jaden didn't know whether it was better to gather the fallen fruits, maybe start a compost pile, or to leave them on the ground. A stiff breeze blew through the trees and more fruits fell, the stripey kitsu frowned. Best leave them for now, and worry about the good fruits. And so, they'd gone to the barn, gathered up as many bushels and baskets as they could find, and returned to the orchard.

When Jaden had first come to live with Vervain on this old farm, the orchard had been in pretty bad shape. It was overgrown with weeds, and the trees had been abandoned to grow wild. It had taken weeks of weeding and pruning, but all of the hard work was worth it when the trees had bloomed and begun to bear fruit. Jaden had a way with plants, being a terrestrial, even if their main love was working with lallabaa wool, they still very much enjoyed working in the fields and gardens.

Now they were up a ladder, elbow deep in thick foliage plucking crisp apples and putting them in a pouch hung around their neck. When the pouch became too heavy, or the area was picked clean, down the ladder Jaden went, emptying the pouch into a basket, shifting the ladder to another area, and climbing back up again. This was a lot of work, and hauling all of these bushel baskets to town would be rough… maybe someone in town would have a handcart they could borrow? All the same, it would be worth it to be able to share the bounty with everyone. It wasn't as if the two of them could finish off a fraction of all of this, before it would start to go bad.

Vervain was on the ground, picking figs from large bush like trees. They were smaller fruits, but they were so very sweet! Definitely Vervain's favorite out of everything they'd grown. They already had plans to make jelly or jam, and to dry a whole bunch. Of course they were planning to also share the harvest, oh, but they wanted to bake tarts and cookies too!

The celestial hummed as they worked, moving aside great big, dark green leaves as they circled the large plant. The fruits on this plant were easy to spot, being a dark purple in color, another variety had green fruits, even when they were ripe. Both kinds were delicious. When Vervain's pouch was full, they moved to empty it into a nearby basket, wiping their arm across their forehead, they smiled and let out a content sigh. So much work still to do.

(WC: 526)