I didn't realize how I've been taking the apple tree for granted until reading this - thank you. This is a really beautiful post.

We are fortunate to have wild apple trees all over the place, deep in the woods, along the roadside and scattered all over. I am an avid apple forager (won't be until late September), but I'll drag bushels of apples home from the wild. No one around here collects them.

I'll have a new appreciation for this ritual going forward!