Peaches, peaches, peaches

This post is a little late in coming, now that peach season is over, I just wanted to encourage anyone that has room in their yard, to grow a peach tree. We planted two peach trees three years ago and this year we were able to enjoy the 'fruits' of our labor. We had peaches coming out our ears! We made peach cobbler, peach pie, peach cheesecake, peach jell-o, peach jam, gave peaches away to neighbors, bottled peaches, froze peaches, and ate them nearly every morning for breakfast...and we still have some left! Isn't that cool that you can produce your own food in your own yard? I love it!! So..this is just an encouragement for anyone out there that would like to plant fruit trees. We bought our tree at the end of the season at IFA for around $25, check your local stores and see if they still have them and if they would still be okay to plant. You may have to be patient for a few years, but then you will get your reward. Our pear tree and apple tree also produced well this year. I guess three years is the lucky number. Give it a try ;)

Here is my Grandma Lucy's Peach Jam Recipe that I love. It is lower in sugar, so a little better for you:

6 c. peaches, mashed (skins removed)

1 pkg. pectin

1/4 c. lemon juice

Stir above ingredients and let sit for 5 minutes. Bring to a rolling boil and add 5 c. sugar. Mix well and continue to boil for 5 more minutes (at FULL boil). Check jam after 5 minutes with a metal spoon. If the spoon is coated with jam and if the jam is no longer runny, then jam is done. If it is not thick enough, you can continue to boil for 5-10 more minutes or until thick. When done, put in canning jars and wet bathe them for 30 minutes, or freeze them.

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It's Garden Time!

I am posting this blog to help encourage any of you who are debating whether or not to plant a garden to give it a try! I DO NOT have a 'green thumb' nor do I know much about gardening. Pretty much everything I plant, doesn't grow (except for tomatoes, zucchini and peppers--so that's about all I grow ;). However, I do know I LOVE having fresh produce from my garden and know it saves me TONS of money in the summer! I was reading a talk by President Ezra Taft Benson that had some good insight on why we should grow a garden. If you are interested, here it is...

"More than ever before, we need to learn and apply the principles of economic self-reliance. We do not know when the crisis involving sickness or unemployment may affect our own circumstances. We do know that the Lord has decreed global calamities for the future and has warned and forewarned us to be prepared. For this reason the Brethren have repeatedly stressed a “back to basics” program for temporal and spiritual welfare.

Today, I emphasize a most basic principle: home production and storage. Have you ever paused to realize what would happen to your community or nation if transportation were paralyzed or if we had a war or depression? How would you and your neighbors obtain food? How long would the corner grocery store—or supermarket—sustain the needs of the community?

An almost forgotten means of economic self-reliance is the home production of food. We are too accustomed to going to stores and purchasing what we need. By producing some of our food we reduce, to a great extent, the impact of inflation on our money. More importantly, we learn how to produce our own food and involve all family members in a beneficial project. No more timely counsel, I feel, has been given by President Kimball than his repeated emphasis to grow our own gardens. Here is one sample of his emphasis over the past seven years:

We encourage you to grow all the food that you feasibly can on your own property. Berry bushes, grapevines, fruit trees—plant them if your climate is right for their growth. Grow vegetables and eat them from your own yard.” (Ensign, May 1976, p. 124).
Many of you have listened and done as President Kimball counseled, and you have been blessed for it. Others have rationalized that they had no time or space. May I suggest you do what others have done. Get together with others and seek permission to use a vacant lot for a garden, or rent a plot of ground and grow your gardens. Some elders quorums have done this as a quorum, and all who have participated have reaped the benefits of a vegetable and fruit harvest and the blessings of cooperation and family involvement. Many families have dug up lawn space for gardens.

The Lord wants us to be independent and self-reliant because these will be days of tribulation. He has warned and forewarned us of the eventuality."

I had SO much fun planting our garden today with my kids. We were out there for several hours laughing and talking about the miracle of how a small little plant or seed will soon turn into a large plant with vegetables and fruit we can eat--SO amazing! My kids were extatic to see that for the first time (it's taken 3 years) our peach, apple and pear trees all have tiny little buds/fruit on them--bottling season here we come! Our garden is NOTHING special, but the feelings it creates within a family is priceless :)

***For all those experienced gardeners out there--what kind of a spray do I use for my fruit trees? I have never had buds or signs of fruit before and I would be devistated if we lost it all to bugs...help!! Thanks!!

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