Difficulty of Growing Fruit

I came across an article about fruit, especially the new shape of fruit that was just interesting to me.

Of course, fruit comes in many shapes and sizes. Some are spherical -- like oranges, blueberries and grapes. Others are oblong -- like mangoes and papayas. Still others are apple- or banana-shaped like ... apples and bananas.

 Some farmers, though, are challenging our assumptions about the shape of fruit.

Watermelons, for example, no longer need to be the rounded oblong shape with which we are most familiar. Go to the right market, and you may find square watermelons grown by botanical artists. At a restaurant, the cucumbers in your salad might appear heart-shaped rather than round, due to the produce shaping of another farmer.

While amazing, forming produce into basic shapes like squares and hearts is just the beginning.

One agricultural expert has developed a process where pears -- having long been pear-shaped -- can now arrive at your farmer's market in the shape of little Buddhas. They can shape the arms and facial features in such a well-defined way that the Buddha appears to be in a prayer-like, meditative state.

These fruits look like beautiful little sculptures or carvings, but people use no knives to create them. Farmers grow these pears this way.

To grow square watermelons and Buddha-shaped pears, farmers use specially designed molds they attach to the fruit when it first appears. As the young fruit matures, it grows into the mold, taking on the shape of the inside of the tool.

When the fruit is ripe, the farmer removes the mold. The fruit retains the shape of the mold, allowing the farmer to deliver a square watermelon, heart-shaped cucumber or Buddha-shaped pear to the market.

With or without the mold, producing fruit is no easy task. Because of our distance from the farm or orchard, many of us have lost our appreciation for just how difficult this process is. We simply go to the local grocery story and pick up whatever fruit we like, at a reasonable price. It is all right there before us and we can receive it instantly.

If you are acquainted with your New Testament, you have probably read the passage in the letter of Paul to the Galatians about the fruit of the Spirit in Chapter 5. Of course, there is no market where we can acquire the fruit of the Spirit -- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Instead, we need to become orchard keepers, cultivating these virtues within us.