Peach Notes: Even though we did a massive amount of pruning,
we should have done more as I had several broken branches. But HEY, the
Franken-Tree keeps producing fruit, although I'm sure its days are numbered ...
so similar to 2002 (when we had to replace the tree on the right), we may
need to eventually replace that one.
I like really ripe peaches ... versus the so-called "fresh" ones you get at the
farmer's market which are actually picked a few weeks early for transport -
there is a big difference in sweetness!
So I wait until several dozen were falling a day - note
they are useable despite being bruised.
The "big shake" was on August 14th (took a half hour) and I use this approach rather than
hand picking so the "ready-to-fall ones" are captured ... with many still
left on the tree for further ripening. As seen in the video, it's good comedy
as the tarp holders are "bombarded" by peaches. And yes, we get a lot of
bruised peaches, but those are diced up first ... with the semi-unscathed ones
dealt with in a few days.
As seen in the pictures, just about every flat surface in the house is taken up by peaches
laid on top of newspaper. I check these daily to see if any have "melted"
(going rotten) and move 'em to the dicing area - tossing 'em if really bad.
Wendy ROCKS on the dicing ... and new this year is we added ~4 ounces of
a sugar/lime solution to some of the frozen gallon bags per my Mom's suggestion.
This is a quart of water,
a cup of honey (we needed to use it up - sugar would probably be better) and a
Tablespoon of lime juice. In years past, the peaches rapidly turn brown when
defrosted 6 months later ... so hopefully this will help.
After the "big shake", there are still hundreds of peaches on the trees.
So after about a week of picking up ones that are falling, there's a
smaller shake which reduces the number left on the tree down to about a
hundred. More dicing, etc. ... and a few days later, I hand-pick the
last of the peaches.
In addition to freezing all the peaches (over a hundred pounds), Wendy is
eats a huge bowl every day for a couple of weeks plus I make
peach ice cream (and other
concoctions) while they are fresh. And because we still have wayyyy too
many to consume ourselves and/or freeze over the short two week time span,
we gave away easily over 500 peaches to friends.
Our apple tree also had a bountiful crop ... so we had some fun doing some
Smashing Apples! ;-)
After the 2012 MEGA Peach Harvest, we had ONE peach in 2013 ... but we seem to have been on an every-other-year cycle.
So I had high hopes for 2014 ... but I think a Mother's Day frost clobbered the trees ... so we got zippo from the "Franken-Tree" and not even two dozen from the younger tree.
Wendy had bought me a "peach picker basket" (see image below) and this was pretty handy as
almost all of them were very high up on the tree. It worked great if the peach was on a branch such that I could
get the basket underneath and pull it away using the tongs. But some were buried between branches and when I tried
to get 'em out, they fell on the rocks - D'OH! ;-)
The ENTIRE 2014 Peach Harvest! :-(
