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Smudged memories, To Grandaddy with love

A weekend road trip saw me getting my “Fruit Loop” on.  Before you start to think – uh, crazy - (which is quite possible) the Fruit Loop is a 35 mile drive through the Hood River Valley.  It’s strewn with orchards and vineyards and Mt. Hood living large in the background.  It was an iconic fall day; crisp morning with a marine layer that dissolved into a pleasant afternoon, definitely a fall-lover’s daydream. 

While greedily living the tour de Fruit Loop, snatching up apples, pears and snapping photos galore, my attention was captured by a strange, yet familiar contraption.  Somewhere in the recesses of my childhood mind’s eye, I saw them, plopped in an old grove of walnut trees – smudge pots!

Looking much like a rendition of the Tin Man, these gadgets have a very warming purpose.  Blanketing orchards with a smoky layer of balminess (certainly a stretch of the word) to help prevent old Jack Frost from nipping the setting fruit.

My much younger self remembers the low-lying clouds that smelled of oil and kerosene.  My Granddaddy would go out in the dark to light the pots, sending a lovely glow all over the orchard.  Occasionally, I got to tag along while he set fire to the dirty, smudge pots.  It was like magical luminarias scattered in the trees.  So you can imagine the serendipity of finding the grimy oil-burning pots on this fruity drive about.  I had always thought they were a California thing, save the oranges!  But no, here they were continuing a duty started circa 1910; ready to guard and defend Asian Pears, quintessential Bartlett and Gala Apples.

The day of encountering the valley tucked at the base of a mountain lingered until shadows grew long.  Reluctantly, it was time to head toward urbanity, the Mini loaded with brown bags of fruit that now sit on the kitchen counter waiting to be devoured…but my head full of smudge pot memories, old and new.

Smudged, with lots of fruit…


Missy


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Comments

  1. Wildlife Art by SylSeptember 29, 2014 at 6:29 PM

    smudgy memories for sure...love it...Hood River area is marvelous..I can still smell all the fruit in the air...

    ReplyDelete

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