Transformational Peaches

Nothing improves my day more than a fresh ripe peach from my own tree. I've been potty training Rosie for the last month, which comes with many frustrations.  Potty training accidents eat up all of my patience. I finished cleaning up another terrible accident  just before lunch and was starting to feel grouchy.  Then I sliced up one of these and shared it with the kids and the whole incident was forgotten. It was full of real peachy flavor that I hadn't tasted in  years. A truly transformational peach.

Sunflowers

Russ planted sunflowers in front of our house a few months ago. I've never been much of a flower person, so I was a little sceptical.  They grow quickly - the tallest of these is probably eight feet high - and in the last week they have started to bloom. I've spent the last hour sitting in the front room admiring the flowers while the rest of my family is in bed sick. They are beautiful.

Not My Favorite Job

A few weeks ago I tried canning some peaches (pictured above) and some apricots (pictured below). The apricots were fairly straightforward. Slice them in half, remove the pit, put them in hot jars, add syrup and place the jars in the canner. To can peaches, you follow the same process, except you need to blanch and peel the  peaches before you put them in hot jars. I blanched the peaches (put them into boiling water for a minute, then into ice water) but they would not peel. I tried blanching them again, this time for two minutes and they still wouldn't peel. I ended up removing the peels with a paring knife, which was not a fun or quick job. After discussing the problem with my mother-in-law, an experienced canner, I realised that the super cheap peaches I used were probably not ripe enough. Grrr. Hopefully I'll forget this experience and be willing to try again next year.

Sweet Loving Nature

Russ pulled this piece of comb from one of our hives and stuck his finger in to taste it. The amber-colored liquid looks like honey, but it isn't, as it hasn't been aged. It tastes like honey-flavored corn syrup. Alex and I have been enjoying it for the last few days. I can't wait for the real thing.