Anjali and the Plums

The trees in our backyard have been raining ripe plums (the size of large cherries), so I collected some. Anjali was playing on the ground nearby, and found a yellow plum of her own. I let her go ahead and try it, and she ate enthusiastically (Don't worry ~ I fished out the seed). My collection bucket was nearby, and she made her way over to it, pulled up to standing, and looked in. She found that if she maneuvered just right, she could reach the plums inside! She pulled one out. Looked at it, and ate it. When I was done collecting, we both stood by the bucket at the same time. I showed her how I was tossing the plums into the bucket. She watched me, and then reached into the bucket and grabbed another plum.
I took the bucket of plums in to the kitchen where it sat on the floor awaiting processing. Later on while she was playing in the kitchen, she discovered the bucket. Pulled herself up, reached in, and pulled out another plum! I believe that, as much as she enjoyed eating the plums (which, obviously, she did), she also reveled in the act of discovering of them ~ as if her hunter-gatherer instinct was finally able to be put to use. How gratifying!

The next day, when I processed the plums into jelly, Anjali was on the look-out for any errant plums that might roll across the floor. She was ready.

While I could have "cut her off," and not allowed her to eat another one, I didn't. I expected that we might get a dramatic digestive. . display. . for that big influx of plums, too. But ~ isn't that part of harvest season fun? ~ eating so many that you make yourself sick and remember it forever? I didn't want to deprive her of that earthy experience . Days passed, and now weeks (and, by the way, we never had a big poopy event). The season for the yellow plums is now past. The stragglers either got eaten by birds, trampled under foot, or fermented into tan-colored smushes. As Anjali played outside she learned to discern the fresh from the mush. And as a new crop of red plums has come and gone, she became a connoisseur of those, too. Papi likes to think that she is so eager to play in the backyard because he has been back there so much ~ building the hen house. But I think we both know the real reason: plums.

This girl likes plums.