What It's Worth

Our pear tree had no pears last year. I'm not sure if it was a late frost, and early spring wind, or sunspots, but we had no pears - ZERO - nada.
This year however, the limbs are bowing with fruit. I've watched them for weeks, picking and testing a pear now and then to try and determine when they would be ripe.
I kept my great nephew Jordan yesterday and each time we walked by the tree, his eyes drifted up to the fruit.
When we finished up at the barn and headed back for lunch, I asked him if he liked pears. He shrugged his shoulders - "me don't know," he said. I found a juicy looking pear about the size of a softball and held Jordan up to let him pick it.
He carried it as gently as an egg. When we got inside, I washed, peeled and sliced it into small chunks and sat back to watch.
He took a small piece and tentatively put it in his mouth. But it was soon obvious that he loved the pear. He said "dis is good uncle Wick!" He hasn't perfected "R's" yet. He ate two more before he went home in the late afternoon.
I've had people tell me that it's cheaper to buy fruit at Wal-Mart than to buy trees, and care for them year after year. That may be true in strictly economical terms, but I think there's more involved here than a sack of pears or apples.
I know where my fruit comes from. I know what is in the soil and air around my trees. I know what they eat and I know what tries to eat them.
I also believe that when you help a child understand where food comes from, it can help him with life skills that a lot of kids never learn. No calculator I've ever seen can figure out what that's worth?