The Last Peaches



Ever since I was a toddler I loved peaches.  It started when at the end of each summer my parents would purchase a bushel of Michigan peaches and can them.  They were so good!  I would ask my mom for "peachies."  The problem came when the home supply ran out in the middle of winter.  My parents went to the store and bought some canned peaches for me.  I refused to eat them.  They didn't taste like the good home canned ones.

As time went on, my dad started a garden and had success with many things.  I remember fresh strawberry shortcake and fresh raspberries and blackberries.  We even had a peach tree.  As a teenager I learned to can and to make homemade raspberry and blackraspberry jam.  Yum!

When I was in college, my parents built a house farther out of town on a few acres of land.  My dad had plenty of space for fruit trees.  He experimented with different kinds of apple and pear trees.  Some were good and some not so good.  And there were a couple of peach trees! 

When my dad became sick a few years ago, he couldn't care for the trees any longer.  The trees don't get sprayed in the spring and so the apples and pears are a bit wormy.  There is just one peach tree left.  This year it was loaded with peaches.  They are small, but they are still good.  I took them home and canned some of them and also made peach jam.  As I was doing so, it came back to me how my dad told me how to skin the peaches, how to make the syrup and the correct way to put them in the jars.  And I remembered how I asked my mom for "peachies." 

My parents are now both gone and we will soon be selling their house, so this will be the last of the peaches with many fond memories.