One of the best purchases I’ve made recently was my online purchase of a harvesting bag, specifically a bag made for apple picking. I looked around local feed stores, farming supply stores, and big home & garden warehouses for such a bag, but to no avail. So, I searched online and finally ordered one from, of all places, Amazon. It took about a week for it to arrive, and I was probably disproportionately excited when it did. I’ve wanted such a bag for a while, and it’s perfect. It has a strong, thick, padded shoulder strap and the bag itself is of sturdy canvas and nylon. It’s like a big, tube of fabric with a shoulder strap, open on the top and the bottom, with a rigid, crescent-moon-shaped frame in the lining around the top to hold it open for easy apple depositing. You fold up the bottom of the bag and clip two metal rings attached thereupon to a couple of locking hooks about a foot and a half from the bottom, closing the bottom so the apples don’t fall right through. Then, when your bag is full of apples, you walk over to some larger apple-receiving receptacle, unclip the rings from the hooks, and the bottom falls open, easily delivering the apples and emptying the bag. I love it. I don’t have any apples to harvest, but I use it when I’m pulling weeds or pruning small trees or trimming shrubs. I prefer to work quietly and slowly, without loud power tools. To trim the shrubs on Saturday, for example, I donned the bag, took the small hand clippers, grasped overlong branches one or two at a time, clipped them and deposited them into the bag as I went. If I saw a weed as I worked, it went into the bag. It was peaceful and strenuous in a pleasant way. There was no loud, vibrating motor. There was no power cord or gas can. There was no cleanup when I was done. Just the quiet snip of the clippers and the sigh of the clipping sliding into the bag. I filled the bag once and then about two-thirds again, emptying it into one of the large, brown, recycled paper bags the city uses for yard and garden clipping collection. It took a while, but I loved both the finished result and the process. I think the apple picking bag might be my favorite thing I own.
Hello, friends. I hope you’re well.
Later. Love.
