Sometimes every other little thing has to be put onto the back burner or downsized to the bare minimum; the peach trees attracting heaps of bird attention is one of those times. Well, that’s my excuse for the lack of diversity in this weeks photos, anyway.
The original inhabitants of the Homestead were really smart when it came to shelterbelt planting. Among the usual suspects (blue gum, pittosporum, tree lucerne etc) we have a good number of fruit trees which we are slowly coaxing back into production. Weirdly (because on all previous homesteads they have been a dismal failure), the two peach trees have been utterly reliable since day one. This has lead to us developing quite the taste for peach desserts of all manner and peach jam on our morning toast; peaches are our main fruit crop and one we can’t let those feathery fruit fanciers beat us to.
In the ideal world, we would be putting away 24 jars of jam and 52 portions of our its-not-pretty-by-it-tastes-good stewed fruit and, while we haven’t quite managed that, we’re happy with the results.
As for the fruit that decides to fling itself off the tree while we’re not looking
Once it’s been assessed as lacking by Colin in Quality Control 
our ladies in Waste Management work their magic
Some weeks are full of adventures, pretty photos, and funny stories and some are spent standing at the sink and stove; Little Red Hen style.
Union Homestead 
First, can I just say that “pittosporum” is a fantastic word, totally wasted as a tree name. We envy you the peach productivity – we in this region are just on the edge of being able to grow peaches well – but we’re in general too damp for much of the year, and so they have to be under overhangs or sheltered but open in some way to be productive here. There is an area in BC however famous for it’s fruit and wine production – the Okanagan – hot and dry and almost desert like in the summers, very cold and dry ish in the winters (they get a lot of snow). Not unlike the Cromwell area in South Island. I was going to link you to some peachy sort of story, but what I found was this instead – an iconic Canadian folk artist. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INKcCeTXTzc&list=OLAK5uy_nah8-OH5ewPLpsrF6z5Ni6IRZrrq8wGbg
Our clean up crew is always the chickens – I really miss the pigs for this – and btw pigs, LOVE peaches. The pits are supposed to be not great for them, but my pigs always ate them and were never the worse for it.
I guess its a cool word but to me its just a shrubby thing that the goats go crazy for. Loved the folk song! Yes, I read that the pits weren’t great for them but they seem to love them…crunching them up like boiled sweets. With the advent of the pigs I have to remember to keep stuff back for the chickens. Life is duch a balancing act 😁
Yes, that was an issue for me too (meting things out been fowl and pigs) – nowadays it’s a total win for the hens.
Glad you managed to harvest so much of a bumper crop. The pictures illustrate a good story.
Thanks, Susan 😊
Are they sweet and juicy to eat straight off the tree. I love peaches more than any other fruit and would try not to leave any for preserving if possible!
They’re kind of hit and miss…maybe one in ten is absolutely sublime. Luckily those ones are easy to spot. They’re the perfect preserving peach: freestone and firm so they don’t turn to mush.
One in ten is not good odds so it is fortunate that they keep so well.
Hi, I am glad you are set to enjoy the peaches – stewed and as jam – for a while yet. Backyard fruit growing is popular around here, as well as collecting fruit from old trees growing on public or waste ground. Apparently, this has been a good year for plums. I have attended bottling and jam making workshops but decided it was way out of my league to do at home. However, I like to pickle surplus vegetables – cucumber, capsicum and zucchini – given to me.
I am a disaster bottling fruit. Not sure what mh problem is, whatever method I use is unsuccessful. Our plums were ok but both trees needed to be severely pruned last season so theyre still getting over that. Foraging is huge in Christchurch, especially in the “red zone” areas where houses no longer exist but their plantings do.
Yes, some weeks are spent at the sink and stove during harvest – that is the way it is! Unfortunately, our local wildlife are quite happy to start (and finish) the harvest some time before we and the crops are ready so we lose quite a lot.
I can imagine that bathing in peach soup can’t be that pleasant! 😀
I hadn’t even considered the wildlife getting to the crops before theyre ready! I lose some baby courgette, pumpkin etc to them but theyre generally ready Im just waiting for them to get a bit bigger. To take them before theyre ripe is just rude!!😊
It is!! 🙂