Sometimes I wonder what my family actually thinks when I mention things like, "Let's go peach picking on Saturday." But much to my surprise, they were all game! We loaded up the car on Saturday morning, and when I say loaded up the car, I mean the three of us, rain boots in case of mud, cold water, and snacks and drove the 30 plus minutes to Gieringer's Farm.
McKinley and I have been U-Picking here before, loading up on strawberries a couple of summers ago, but this was Joel's first visit. We took a tractor ride to the orchard, and a second ride to the peach portion of the orchard, and then got to picking. The trees were brimming with peaches and the smell of this sweet fruit was amazing! You simply picked a peach from the tree and it was like a scratch-n-sniff sticker! Heaven! And McKinley always gets in the spirit of u-pick. He travels from tree to tree, picking the "best" from each one, and claiming he'll try a bite when we get home. The latter never happens! Joel on the other hand, couldn't wait to get home and bite in. He's a huge peach fan! Too bad the old saying isn't a peach a day....
So what do we have in store for these beauties? Well, we today for a week at the river and we plan to make peach ice cream, maybe a peach pie or cobbler, and if we get enough time to slice and freeze, maybe peach preserves later this summer? I mean, we have 15 pounds of peaches. We have plenty, I think!
We decided that we needed some blueberries as well. McKinley was all about picking them with me, until he spotted the small playground on the way back from the peach orchard, so I lost my picking buddy to play. It takes a lot of patience to pick these tiny berries and I lost my steam half way through. But, I got about a pound and a half of blueberries that will be served up in pancakes and possibly muffins!
Are you a u-picker? What farms to you tend to visit during picking season? We've picked strawberries at Johnson Farms in Belton, MO and apples at Cider Hill Family Orchard in Kansas City, KS. And after you've picked, what do you do with the fruit? We love to can apple butter, bake just about anything for dessert, but I also love to use frozen berries in smoothies. Nothing like fresh fruits!
XO,
Andrea
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