Every morning that I walk out into my patio I find a handful of peaches on the ground. Some are in my opinion, are perfect; cloaked in warm red-orange or yellow velvet skins speckled with green. Each peach seems as if it was dipped a different color on each side; the more sun it got, the more blush it has. There is a subtle fragrance of ripe sweet peaches that comes and goes with each passing breeze.
Some of the peaches that I have picked up from the ground have fallen because they are ripe or because the greedy squirrels have shaken the branches as the jump from one bunch of peaches to the next. I call them greedy because they nibble on one peach and maybe they don't like it, so they drop it and move on to the next and so on. There are handfuls that I have to pick up and throw away daily or else the pesky fruit flies make a feast of them as rot on the ground.
About six years ago I was eating a delicious peach and when I was done, I walked out to my patio and pushed it into the soft soil next to my herbs. I was lucky to have grown it from a pit, it isn't always guaranteed that it will work.
It's still a small peach tree, but I have picked a lot more fruit than we could eat so I've given lots of them away and I still have enough to share with the greedy squirrels and a family of mocking birds that peck at them until they give and fall hollow to the ground.
It's been a generous peach harvest so far. Last year I was only able to get enough to make a jar of peach salsa, this year I could probably made a dozen jars...but I won't! With that said, off I go to ponder and figure out what I should do with this generous bowl of peaches.
