When Life Hands You Peaches...(and a peach of a neighbor!)

My darling cats are little foragers -- and in chasing them one day, they showed me a neighbor's burgeoning peach trees. Right across the street -- from my driveway, I can see fruit on the ground, rotting. Today I introduced myself, and we had a great visit -- I showed him my garden, we shared homemade liquers with each other (his fruit brandy is made with currants and he liked my limoncello).

E. is in his 50s, originally from Iran and he works as a general contractor and teaches construction at a nearby community college.. He loves planting trees and believes, "well, if you need plants and greenery, why not something that produces fruit and is useful?" I found out that he's responsible for planting trees all along our street where none existed when he first moved her in 2003.

He invited me to pick all the fruit I could -- two trees should be ready next week, even tastier than the white peach we cleaned up together this afternoon. I now have about 15# of apricots, 20# of peaches and 10# of lemons. I still need to paint the solar dehydrator pieces, so it looks like I will be spending my evening in the kitchen with all the fruit, alternating with applying coats of varnish to the wood.

wheee!!!