A Bite To Eat: Peaches
There was a day several years ago in early spring that I often return to in my mind. January and February had each lasted about fifteen years apiece, or so it had seemed. I had lost my mother just after the turn of the new year. The emotional gloom was palpable on its own, but matched perfectly the gray world around me. What a time to be fighting a broken heart.
Finally, though, there came a day in early March that lured me out the door. As always, I headed south. There was no agenda, just the comfort of driving across the Carolinas with a hopeful sky above me and warm soft air for company. Everywhere I turned, peach trees were coming to life. Mile after mile of orchards wearing pink ruffled blooms smiled and waved. And something in me lifted.
Grief is nothing if not a journey, and that day marked the beginning of the end of mine. It never quite leaves us when we lose someone we love, but the load lightens. We learn how to reach through and past.
Now with each bushel of summer peaches comes the reminder of that day, and I smile.
I celebrate peaches in the kitchen, as we all do around here, with homemade peach ice cream, cobblers, pies. We grill them, pickle them, and turn them into butters, jams, and salsas, and beyond that, our freezers fill with enough containers of their sugar-coated slices to get us across another winter and into the next warm day in March when all will once again be right with the world.
Thank God for peaches. They are good for what ails you. They can even heal a broken heart.
Photo by Beth Yarbrough. The antique copper candy kettle was a gift from dear friend Bronson Pinchot. The peaches were a gift from God himself.
Thank you for your peachy story! It reminded me of a day when I was about 8 years old in 1958 and growing up in Raleigh. My Mama and I were in the basement of our house with the garage door open while she worked on the pile of laundry generated by four children. Right beside the open garage was a bushel basket of the kind of peaches that come only from the South-- the ones that are ripe off the tree and live in your memory forever:) I remember feeling rich when I could play in the cool basement and walk over and choose a juicy peach anytime I wanted. Lucky me:)
Hey Beth. My wife and I share your love for sweet juicy peaches. We have been visiting family in the SC Upstate for years and as often as possible wold take bushels home with us. We made the move in the Fall 2021 and now live smack in the middle of peach orchards everywhere. Sadly, the freeze this past Winter had a devastaing effect on the peach harvest this Summer. Hoping for a good bumper crop next year.