The Peach Tree
Growing up, my parents had a peach tree in our front yard and I always enjoyed eating those fresh peaches on a hot summer day. So when my wife and I hit upon the idea of planting an orchard instead of giving out favors at our wedding, I had to get a couple peach trees included. The day after our wedding we planted them out in the canary grass buffer behind all the farm buildings and pretty much forgot about them for the next 15 or so years.
I guess the reason is that aside from the apple trees, they never produced a lot of fruit. The deer evidently love peach trees and kept them heavily pruned, killing the other one. Probably the same went for the two sour cherry trees we planted. One apple tree however did alright and we did pick some apples off it from time to time but that was the extent of our use of the orchard.
So when the garden fencing idea took fruition, we enclosed the old orchard remnants and I have kept it mowed this past year. With the deer now not welcome the old peach tree has shown its gratitude. The last time we were down on the farm, I picked all four peaches that it produced this year. Three of them were so bug eaten that we could only get one good bite on the far (good) side before tossing them. One peach was a specimen fruit that we used in a desert back home.
Here I am showing off the one bug eaten peach with my teeth marks in the good half. I ate a few more bites before giving it a toss. The nearly pristine peach is the one behind it. Although we haven't planted any more yet, I would like to plant a few more peach trees in the new orchard when we find some for the right price. They aren't real hardy trees this far north but if we got a handful of years of fruit out of them I would be happy.
Thinking of Debby, I thought I would show this strip between our asparagus bed on the left and corn/potato patch on the right over looking the strawberry beds in the distance. One of the few times I have been able to mow this strip this year due to all the wet weather.
You're killing me...
ReplyDeleteSorry, I couldn't resist!
DeleteThe one side of that one peach sure looked juicy! Ed I admire you for not giving up but aarrgh!
ReplyDeleteI'm fortunate that I'm patient!
DeleteEd, one thing I have noticed with my own gardening efforts is how different the fruits and vegetables I get are from what I see in the store. Mine had a lot more "blemishes" - cracking, bug bites and such. I think people sometimes forget that is the way real Nature works.
ReplyDeleteDo they have peach varieties that are more adapted to cold?
They probably do these days but I haven't investigated that avenue yet. As the orchard gets established and we are filling in what we can't get on the cheap, I will look for varieties that are more hardy to us.
DeleteLooking at that peach, my mouth is watering. It's a shame the critters/birds picked our trees clean before we got to them this year.
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm waging a war against squirrels and our apple tree at our city dwelling. I'm thinking I should take up eating squirrel again when in season.
DeleteI wish I had a peach tree in my yard.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I find about the same delight in eating any fruit right off a tree in my yard.
DeleteNice peaches for Iowa!!:)
ReplyDeleteThey are a bit small compared to what we find in the store but a heck of a lot sweeter. I wish I had written down the type when we planted it but it will just remain a mystery.
DeletePoor Debby! I love fresh peaches and they grow very well in the central part of our state. Not so much here.
ReplyDeleteToo bad there is a mountain range between us to disrupt that temperate climate.
DeleteWe had 20 mangoes on our pirie mango tree this year. I watched them every day. They slowly got bigger and ripened on the tree beautifully. I just finished picking the last ones and will savor the incredible sweet and smooth taste and texture. I wish the crop was bigger but I keep trimming/shaping the tree and thus it goes on strike for me. Maybe I should plant another tree and let it grow and grow. I do love mangoes. I don't think I have every had a fresh peach off a tree but I can imagine how wonderful it is.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, while I don't dislike them, mangoes are not my favorite fruit. But my kids love mangoes and go through them at a rapid clip. I guess they got that from their mother whose childhood home had lots of mango trees in the yard.
DeleteOh dear Ed, you don't seem to have much luck in your orchard but at least you don't seem too downhearted about it. Keep trying. Do you know of any neighbours who have grown fruit trees successfully? Maybe they can give you some helpful advice or even some branch cuttings.
ReplyDeleteI think I've had lots of luck as these are really the first casualties I have suffered in my tree planting career so perhaps that is why I'm not downhearted about it.
DeleteAs for orchards, they are relics of the past much like covered front porches and summer kitchens are these days. It is just too easy and fast for people to buy a bag of wax covered, pesticide coated fruit at their local grocery store than to plant and nurture a tree for a half dozen years before it bears fruit. All the old farmers, now long gone had orchards and sometimes you still see an ancient apple or pear tree around but the only maintained orchards I know about around home today are all businesses, which have been coming in vogue this last handful of years. Perhaps there is hope for humanity yet!
the good side of that peach looks delicious!
ReplyDeleteI should have took a picture of the backside but it might revolt people especially after saying I ate the good side.
DeleteUnfortunately, that was why we gave up on our apple trees. Every apple was bug eaten. On the other hand, our sour cherry tree produced a lot of cherries. Unfortunately, the birds did eat half of the fruit it produced. Still, we were able to make a few cobblers.
ReplyDeleteWe bought an apple peeler/corer that peels the apple and cores it and leaves you with this spiral of apple which is very easy to cut the bug spots out. After using that, we just gave up trying to keep bugs off and go that route and have been happily preserving apples ever since.
DeleteBirds and sour cherry fruits are a real problem. Fortunately mine in the front yard have a fence taller than they are which keeps the birds down. Eventually when the tree out grows the fence, I'm going to have to find a way to fight off the birds.
I think the shape of that tree is just peachy.
ReplyDeleteDid you like the windswept photo look? I took another picture but then I thought to myself, what would AC do and went around to the side to get a picture that embraced the look.
Delete