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Endless Preparation: Apples And Women’s Work - The Rumpus.net

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To pick the best apples, I have to stand on the back seat of the four-wheeler and stretch the claw-arm of the apple picker up to the highest branches. The apple picker is a wooden rod, and at the very end is a metal basket edged with tines. “Reach higher,” my husband’s octogenarian grandmother yells. It’s not gentle encouragement. It’s an order. Grandma Betty doesn’t mess around. “Don’t drop them, you’ll ruin them.” The cows begin to edge forward, waiting for me to bump some apples loose. The low in anticipation. This isn’t how it was for Eve. I catch my balance so I don’t tumble off the four-wheeler. It is October and the switchgrass glows gold in the afternoon sun. The trees drip with apples, pears, plums, and black walnuts. From the four-wheeler, I can see the neighboring farms, thick with seed corn. In Iowa, the land is an open palm, giving and giving. And we all take. There are cows nearby, hovering, waiting for me to bump the tree and tumble apples to the ground. I can smell thei

Endless Preparation: Apples and Women's Work - The Rumpus Skip to content Other Endless Preparation: Apples and Women’s Work By Lyz Lenz • November 13, 2017 To pick the best apples, I have to stand on the back seat of the four-wheeler and stretch the claw-arm of the apple picker up to the highest branches. The apple picker is a wooden rod, and at the very end is a metal basket edged with tines. “Reach higher,” my husband’s octogenarian grandmother yells. It’s not gentle encouragement. It’s an order. Grandma Betty doesn’t mess around. “Don’t drop them, you’ll ruin them.” The co

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