peach dreams

PEACH DREAMS
this is the time of year when i have those
peach dreams

country n peach dreams
those sweet juicy peaches
that
my wife she and i call
sink peaches
since
you have to hold the peach out over the sink
in the kitchen
bend at the waist
then
bite into that juicy peach
and
let all those juices
what you cannt get into your mouth
fall off you mouth and lips
drip down your chin
into the sink
even trying to catch some of the juices
in the other hand
to lick off when you finish eating the peach

if youve ever eaten sink peaches
then you know what i am talking about
ok i snuck in some tomatoes
in this picture since there are such things as
sink tomatoes also

now our peaches
they dont seem to produce a good crop of peaches every year
but when they do
it is ultimate peach bliss for a few weeks

i do whatever i can every year to make them grow better
this year i mulched around my peach trees with my
country n homemade compost
added some organic fertilizer
even ran a dripper that uses the runoff from my rainwater
tanks to keep extra moisture to them
then

come february 14 thats valentines day for those of you who
might have missed it this year
i trim my peach trees so they are easier to pick the peaches
thinning out limbs

then i am ready
hoping please ole please no late freezes
that will nip those buds just as they are ready
to burst out

sorry to say
that is yesterday and today as our temps dropped into
the upper 20s and the light rain and mist has covered
all our trees with a sheet of ice
got my fingers crossed
hoping that they make it

now we have this one tree thats on its last legs
its old
its now down to one or two branches
the main trunk of the tree is all twisted gnarly like
split open
looks like it should die
but
it seems to survive each year

now this peach tree makes the absolutely best
sink peaches that i have ever eaten
but
we only get them about every 3-5 years because
they bloom in early february every year
then get slammed with the freezes like we have now

so
this year i have scheduled an intervention

i covered it with two layers of row covers
tied at the bottom with bungy cords and clamps
then
covered that with a large tarp
then
inside the middle of the tree branches
i clamped one of those heat lamps used in chicken houses
and
plugged it into my bbq area
hoping
just hoping
that it will keep things warm enough to keep the buds
from freezing

so far before this weather we are having now
its survived two nights of upper 20s
without freezing of the new buds

im dreaming of
sink peaches from that tree

the organicgreen doctor