Peaches, Peaches, Peaches

This family has an insatiable appetite for fruit. Or, to be more accurate, I have an insatiable appetite I've passed on to the girls.

Kyle has a normal appetite for fruit, but he's a good sport about keeping up with the rest of us. I can easily take down a whole melon by myself and the girls can strip the blueberry bushes clean before Kyle has time to blink.

Between the three of us we could probably eat an entire tree worth of peaches in a few days and we might have one or two to share with Kyle. There is no question, peaches are the favorite, but three peach-crazy girls in the house means Kyle has to find a deal.

 

In the past Kyle has gotten you-pick peaches at a local farm, but they raised their prices this year from $1 per pound to $1.25 per pound. Kyle does not appreciate the novelty factor of you-pick. In Kyle's world the only reason to want to pick your own fruit is to save money. He  met someone recently who told him about you-pick peaches for $1.75 per pound and he nearly had a heart attack -- that's the price you pay in the store!

Thankfully the Farmers' Market came to the rescue. He found a stall at the market offering cling stone peaches (Red Havens) for about 50 cents per pound and freestone peaches for 80 cents per pound (not sure of the variety).

And away we go!

Three boxes of peaches cost us $48 and resulted in 10.5 pints of peach jam and 17 quarts of sliced peaches, plus nearly five pounds set aside for a peach-rye beer later this year. I can't wait to break in to this part of our winter food stash!

Well, look at that! I made it to the end of this post without a single reference to a certain song by the Presidents of the United States of America ...