The peaches are flowering!

I mentioned I took a trip out to Fredericksburg a couple weeks ago.  The peach trees out near Johnson City (source of the peaches I got last summer and canned) were blooming, and I took a bunch of pictures. Peach blossoms are very light, delicate, airy things.  The trees themselves are small, maybe about 6 feet high and spread out a lot.  In a farm they’re all pruned so there are these tidy rows of short little trees.  Anyway, they were really pretty, so I thought I’d share some pictures I took.

It was very early spring-like out there.  Dark earth, brilliant green with a few early touches of flower color.  I’m still hoping for the best, but it looks like this year’s crop of wildflowers is going to be on the small side.  We’ve had a terrible drought here the past year.  I know people love the warm, sunny weather, but I can’t imagine it’s great if you’re a grower of things or managing our public water supply or in charge of the lakes and rivers. I like rain and thunderstorms, and I’ve missed clouds.

Of course, I’m going to get another box of peaches this July. And I’m going to skip the jam because I want to make a lot more salsa this year, and can more tomatoes. Want a jar? If you do, tell me and I’ll make you one. And I’m going to try to make some other stuff, more tomatoes, I don’t know what else as long as I don’t have to use a pressure cooker.  I keep thinking maybe sauerkraut and hot sauce, too.

I have actually used most of what I canned. I’ll have to tell you about that later. It was very exciting, in a really dorky I-obviously-didn’t-have-to-do-this-when-I -was-growing-up-and-oh-my-god-my-tomatoes-are-still-good-months-later-that’s-so-amazing kind of way. The sourcing and production of food is often a magical and completely unknown process to city/suburban kids. We assume all stuff grows in cans (just kidding, but you see what I mean).

So. Peach blossoms. I kind of kept wondering if they tasted good too – but forebore to eat any. Sometimes flowers are poisonous. Where I grew up there seemed to be lots of poisonous flowering plants (and bugs and animals), like oleander, and so I never just want to eat stuff. Probably a good thing. I also learned to identify and avoid poison ivy. Also good.

So I’ll be there at that farm stand this summer. We’ll do a before and after, if I remember