I don't know why the apples from this tree never get picked. They're small yellow-green apples, with the sweetest fragrance which these days fills the air along the path that runs by the fenced orchard. We see this happen every year: the apples ripen, and fall to the ground in mounds where they're left to waste and rot away. Why?
Though I'm way too shy to go and ask, I'm not too shy to go and, basket in hand, pick the fruit that has fallen onto the public path. The tree is not very tall, but though the fallen apples look perfectly healthy at first, they're actually bruised, and will spoil in a day or two: they have to be used right away.
We picked over a dozen the other day (and a bonus fallen pear), and made the traditional Florentine apple torta, with raisins and pine nuts, and a delicious creamy texture that make it a real favorite in our family.
My family wasn't too shy, and gobbled up the Florentine fallen-apple torta in two days.
