lblanchard | The peach tree saga -- aka the circle of life

This peach tree tale began more than a decade ago, in Sid's plot in the now-demolished community garden. I don't know whether Sid planted a peach tree or discarded a peach pit. In any event, when this picture was taken in 2002, the tree was producing small but intensely flavorful white-fleshed peaches. Some were picked by the gardeners; others dropped to the ground. Some of the latter sprouted and we had seedlings everywhere. I think the squirrels may have carried them around.

I dug up a couple of those peach seedlings. One, I think, was dug up in the early 00s, and the other about a month before the destruction of the garden in 2005.

The first one was outgrowing our back yard and also underperforming in its pot. I gave it to my two-doors-down neighbor, who has another home on the Delaware waterfront near Salem, NJ. The other went to my daughter-in-law last spring. It had produced this crop of tiny little peaches in 2008. Because the pit-to-peach ratio was so high they tasted of bitter almonds something ferocious.

Eddie stopped me on the street yesterday. His peach tree, he reports, has grown prodigiously in the alluvial soil of Oakwood Beach, and is producing abundantly. He doesn't like peaches but his neighbors, who do, have pronounced them delicious. He's going to bring me some. When I make peach preserves, if they jell properly, I'll give him some. (Edit: And I'll plant a pit or two in one of my planters so that if/when we move I can continue the cycle.)

So what goes around comes around.

In other news, R.I.P. black swallowtail caterpillar, who expired some time yesterday afternoon. Photos will be posted on Flickr, eventually.