Sweet Rewards

We planted a peach tree this spring. Just a few months ago, four really. I have to give Tygh all the credit for that. I never would have thought of planting a peach tree in Oregon. I think of peaches as a fruit grown in the south. I don’t know that I’ve ever even seen a peach tree in all my life.

Yet we love peaches. Each time I hit the grocery store in the summer, I touch the peaches on display, always hopeful. And always rock hard. Eventually I break down and buy a case at Trader Joes and they sit on our counter for literally a week until a few are soft enough to eat. Anyway, Tygh wanted to try to grow one. He researched varieties and asked our local nursery about it. We ended up with a Frost Peach in late March or April.

I wasn’t too hopeful. Between pests or Peach Leaf Curl or just our unpredictable weather, I thought it would be a fun experiment at best.

But we ended up in late July with 6 gorgeous, ripe, juicy peaches.

We are such novice peach growers that when our year old grandson began to try to reach out and grab the lowest growing peach, we shooed him away. Tygh is very protective of those peaches! And didn’t think they’d be ripe for another month or so. But thanks to Elliot’s tiny hands grasping at the fuzzy orange balls, we discovered they were perfectly ripe and ready to enjoy!

Oh what to do with them! There were only six, after all. We sliced one right away, in the garden. Excitement on our faces, juice in our hands and running down our legs. Autumn tasted her first fresh peach. She liked the flavor of the juice. Elliot, the boy who wanted so badly to touch them, turned away from them. More for us, E. More for us. That left 5 peaches! Tygh diced one up and we we had it with vanilla ice cream. Then, we made a delicious peach salsa the following day with 3 of the peaches. The last one was happily eaten as they were intended, whole with peach juice dripping down our faces.

Peach Salsa

• 3 ripe peaches, diced
• a few tablespoons each of diced red onion, jalapeno, tomato, red pepper, cilantro.
• Juice of a lime
• A little salt and pepper to taste.

Yum!