As I write these words, I am more excited than any normal human would be. It's the breakfast I just had. To back up...

I heard it from a friend, who heard it from a friend. There are three apple trees at 8th and Trimble in Point Grey. It's a little park, and these are near the lawn bowling courts. So yesterday I rode my bike up there. I was a little bit disappointed to see that the apples still on the tree were way out of reach. But more than disappointed, I felt quite dismayed to think that all those lovely apples would drop to the ground and bruise badly in the process. A few will be rescued by gleaners like me, but many will just rot. Anyway, I gathered up as many windfalls as I could stuff in my pod pack, and rode back home. They looked like either Macs or Spartans, but I really wasn't sure.

But. This morning when I grated one for my breakfast muesli, I was thrilled to discover that its flesh was not white but a lovely rosey shade. I've seen photos of the exotic red-fleshed apples and have been excited about trying them for some time. A Salt Spring grower specializes in them, but I've rarely seen them at markets. I don't even recall seeing (or tasting) samples of any at the UBC Apple Festival.

As I mixed the muesli, I made all kinds of girly squealing noises about how pretty the apples were on the inside. To be very honest, I wasn't sure how they'd taste. If they were good-looking and great-tasting you'd think these red-fleshed varieties wouldn't have all but disappeared.

Well, they tasted fabulous. Really flavourful, and juicy, which is very important for this muesli (recipe here; it's my favourite healthy breakfast).

Pink-fleshed, sweet juicy apples are like buried treasure and made the foraging adventure a delight. And it's reminded me of the other meaning of the word windfall: something good that is received unexpectedly, like a large sum of money. That's how much we used to value the orchard windfall. And now most people don't value that windfall at all. I don't want to get all heavy here, but there are fruit trees all over the city in parks and public spaces and even private gardens where most of the fruit just falls and goes to waste, because we lack the time, manpower or equipment to pick it.

So please go get some of these apples. If enough of us collect the windfalls a few times a day we can prevent a good portion of them from rotting, and we can experieince the joy of eating a pink-fleshed apple as our reward.