I {LOVE} Peaches

Matthew and I just got back from a week-long trip to beautiful Virginia to visit and celebrate his sister getting married. It was a joyous occasion, and all who came to the ceremony were blessed and encouraged by this sweet couple's devotion to the Lord, their respect and love for one another, and their vows of commitment for the future.

Joy & Iain ~ We love you!!!! Congratulations!!!

Before embarking on our long drive back to Texas, I told Matthew, "Honey, we just have to get some peaches before we get home!"

You see, I have a thing with peaches. It's really sort of a love obsession. First of all, my favorite dessert of all time is peach pie, but you just can't get good peaches anywhere in the grocery stores here, and even if you're lucky enough to find some that taste good, they're still comparably sub-par to their tree-ripened relatives. For those of you out there that share my love of this delicious stone fruit, you understand what I'm saying. I always get my hopes up when I see beautiful peaches at the supermarket, only to find out later that they were either tasteless, mealy, or hard. Yuck! (spitting it out and swearing to never again buy another supermarket peach...although I always end up having my hopes up again and trying, yet again. It's like watching Gone With the Wind again and again and hoping beyond all hope that maybe Scarlett and Rhett will end up together in the end. They never do.)

Anywho, back to Virginia. After a little prodding (it didn't take much), Matthew located several farms near Lynchburg, where we were staying. Using his nifty GPS on his phone, we arrived at Johnson's Orchard & Winery about 30 minutes from town. Such a gorgeous scenic ride through the Virginia mountains, too. ;0)

I think my eyes are closed here, but it's

the only picture of the two of us. Wait,

make that three! ;0)

I was happy to see their prices were reasonable. Of course

I went for the bushel!

Normally I would want to pick my own off the trees,

but their irrigation lines were in the way (so they say) so

we settled for picking them out of the big barrels. They had just been

picked the day before, tree-ripe. One of the helpers said,

"taste as much as you like". She didn't know who

she was talking to. I think I probably had

about 3 or 4 right there! No shame..and oh so delicious!

This is half a bushel. I think each bag

contained nearly 100 peaches. Good deal, eh?

While I was busy filling our bags, Matthew and his

parents did a free wine tasting of 25 different

kinds of wines. Matthew especially liked this spicy

wine, which contained over 30 different kinds of hot peppers.

Talk about HOT!

Even their outhouse was cute. ;)

Beautiful countryside.

Matthew with half our loot. Those bags were

full to the brim!

Back at home. This is one of the counters

that held the peaches. I counted 188 peaches

total, not counting the ones we devoured on our

way home!!

That's it for now! So far I'm enjoying eating them atop granola with milk or

by themselves. Next time I'll share with you about the batch of homemade

peach jam I made and of course.....

Peach pie!

Until next time,

good life and good fruit,

Gail