Picking Peaches

Ah, yes. It's summertime. When you can take a break from working outside, get a drink, and sit in the shade. That first sip of iced tea sizzles down your throat and into your stomach. It makes an almost audible hissing sound as it travels down.

About eight years ago, Mel watched a Youtube video about how to grow fruit trees from seeds. She started three peach, an apple, and a lemon tree seeds from produce she had purchased from the store. As they grew into quart, then three gallon sized containers, she began thinking of where she'd plant them. She decided to leave the lemon tree in the greenhouse because of the cold winters. She planted the apple tree out where the

Three peach trees in our garden.

orchard is now. It was later killed by the Bobcat when we terraced the orchard. The three peach trees were planted at the edge of the new side driveway. The garden didn't stretch as far as it does now. It was only for a year so she could move them when she figured out where she wanted them to go.

Fast forward five years, we now have an orchard area to plant the peaches in, but the peach trees have gotten so large we can't move them easily. She did top them off so the main trunk only reaches five foot. All three are planted together in a clump with barely a foot between the main trunks. Up until this year, all the peaches either fell prey to insects or squirrels. So, we never even tasted them.

This year was different. In spite of Mother Nature sending cold weather until June, we have an abundance of peaches that even the bugs, squirrels, and birds couldn't consume them all. They are smaller than usual, between a golf and tennis ball size, and quite tart. Yes, we finally got to taste our peaches!


It would probably take ten of them sliced to fill a pint sized jar with peaches. Currently, only one of the three trees have ripe fruit. The other two are loaded with green peaches. So we'd have no shortage of them if I wanted to do that. I haven't done anything in the way of fertilizer or cared for these trees in the five years I've been here. I didn't see the since in wasting my time and resources with these trees if we weren't getting anything from them. For five years, I've held off moving the trees or removing them out of my garden. But surprise, surprise! We have a bumper crop this year. So I'll be fertilizing them this year. Actually, we decided to take the smallest one out so the other two would have a better chance. We are seriously talking about moving them down to the orchard if next year's produce is larger and sweeter...if not all three will be cut down and we'll start over.

So what am I doing with all these tart little peaches? Well, I've been picking them. I've been dicing them up for jams and jellies. I've even halved some for cobblers and pie filling. All these things have loads of sugar added to them so the peaches being tart is a mute point. I will say our little peaches are packed with a great peachy flavor. It's a case that we've been gifted these peaches to harvest. It was totally unexpected. So as usual, it's waste not, want not, and see where it goes.

How to make money with just some ingenuity and a little bit of time? The year was 1991, I was a single mother, working my way through college with five children underfoot. I'd pick up cull peaches for free from other vendors. They were too bruised or weren't pretty enough to sell. The next week I'd have more peach jam to sell. Not to be out done, my children picked up corn husks and silk from other vendors. They made corn husk dolls and corn husk refrigerator magnets to sell too.

 What better way to serve a "Little bit of Georgia in every bite!" This is the tag line I came up with when I sold my peach jam at the farmers market. Tourist's snatched them up by the case load. Soon, other vendors offered to sell our wares for a percentage and I didn't have to get a stall at the market anymore. I just delivered 20 cases of jam to the vendor before the market opened and settled up after it closed. I also picked up their culled peaches. By the time the market closed down in October, I'd made enough money for my textbooks for two semesters, and my children had saved enough money for their own back to school supplies. How's that for cents making sense?

Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo