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Homemade Peaches
Jun. 28th, 2010 08:51 pmWhen I first got my house, one of the things I did was plant a "fruit cocktail tree." This tree had the branches of five different related fruits grafted onto it: peaches, nectarines, two kinds of plums, and apricots. I planted it in the front yard, fantasizing about putting up a sign for the neighbors advertising "FREE FRUIT."
It started as a twig, but did turn into a tree. It's now actually tall enough that I can't reach the top (without bending a branch). I have very carefully done no pruning so I wouldn't accidentally prune away an entire fruit.
I've seen flowers and even a few fruit, but they never got very big and then birds would eat them.
Then finally I realized that this tree likes to be watered and we watered it all spring (with a lot of help from Mother Nature). This plan worked. (Or maybe it was that we had just the right winter.) There were fruit and lots of them. They were all fuzzy, like peaches, making me wonder if the other fruits start off fuzzy and then lose their fuzz. Then they started turning colors.
They are all peaches and they all became ripe at almost exactly the same time. Good for orchards, bad for me.
Birds were eating them. Bugs were eating them. Worms were eating them. I shared with a few people people who happened by at just the right time, but eating them required washing, slicing, and cutting out the bad bits. Indigo Rose explains in Organic Peaches.
I washed all the peaches from my first batch, but ate only one. It had some parts that were the ripeness I like and some that were the ripeness Robin likes. I never was in the mood for slicing and let them all go bad.
But I did slice up the peaches from my small second batch. Not enough for pie, but there were enough to make a peach milk shake and to have for breakfast with cottage cheese.
For next year, I'll have to look into anti-bug/worm/bird treatments. (Soap spray? Netting? Early picking?) And also water. And then actually cut up the peaches and freeze some, maybe can some, and definitely (get Robin to) make a pie.
It started as a twig, but did turn into a tree. It's now actually tall enough that I can't reach the top (without bending a branch). I have very carefully done no pruning so I wouldn't accidentally prune away an entire fruit.
I've seen flowers and even a few fruit, but they never got very big and then birds would eat them.
Then finally I realized that this tree likes to be watered and we watered it all spring (with a lot of help from Mother Nature). This plan worked. (Or maybe it was that we had just the right winter.) There were fruit and lots of them. They were all fuzzy, like peaches, making me wonder if the other fruits start off fuzzy and then lose their fuzz. Then they started turning colors.
They are all peaches and they all became ripe at almost exactly the same time. Good for orchards, bad for me.
Birds were eating them. Bugs were eating them. Worms were eating them. I shared with a few people people who happened by at just the right time, but eating them required washing, slicing, and cutting out the bad bits. Indigo Rose explains in Organic Peaches.
I washed all the peaches from my first batch, but ate only one. It had some parts that were the ripeness I like and some that were the ripeness Robin likes. I never was in the mood for slicing and let them all go bad.
But I did slice up the peaches from my small second batch. Not enough for pie, but there were enough to make a peach milk shake and to have for breakfast with cottage cheese.
For next year, I'll have to look into anti-bug/worm/bird treatments. (Soap spray? Netting? Early picking?) And also water. And then actually cut up the peaches and freeze some, maybe can some, and definitely (get Robin to) make a pie.