Milestones (Amy's diary)

[alligatorob]

Your place sounds idyllic! And if not peach-farming, still maybe a few free baskets of peaches every summer?

Thanks, not idyllic, but we like it. We get a whole lot more than a few baskets of peaches, part of the deal is we get all the peaches we can eat, and most years the farmer leaves about half the peaches unharvested so we have trouble even giving them all away. He is very selective in what he harvests, he doesn't take peaches that are too big or too small, too green or too ripe.

Water is an issue, we live in the desert, Utah, without irrigation the peaches would all die. Our irrigation water is based on a very old water right and a series or complicated ditches and pipes almost as old. We have flood irrigation which is one of the challenges, our property is sloping so getting the water to flow to each tree without too much erosion takes a lot of work, and our allocation is in 5 hour blocks that change every time so we might have to water one week in the middle of the night, and the next week mid day. This is part of why I decided I probably should not try to take it over, but the biggest problem is matching buyers to the crop. You only have a few days you can pick the fruit and you need to have someone lined up to buy it. To do that you need to know when and about how much fruit you will have.

 

[Llama]

tomorrow a friend is going to teach me how to make tarator (spelling questionable), a cucumber soup.

Trying new recipes is a great way to keep healthy food interesting - even more so with friends.

 

[Cate]

Farming is tough work. I think you are wise not to take it over. There are so many variables & most are out of your control. I so love fresh peaches. As a kid, my favourite dessert was my Mum's home-bottled peaches with ice cream. Now I would eat at least 1 every day on it's own if they were readily available & delicious.
Is the cucumber soup a chilled one?

 

[aiminglow]

Yes, indeed it is, with yoghurt.
"is that enough?" I asked - it was the garlic being chopped at that point.
"Noooohh," she said. "Again - again-again!"
I hinted about easier ways to chop/mince garlic, but she said this way was "more delicious" - I was in humble apprentice mode, and didn't argue!

 

[aiminglow]

...all the peaches we can eat
...Water is an issue...

The peaches part sounds great, even factoring in the bother it can be to try to give a glut away! (Zucchini, anyone?)
But the water part - yes it's an issue all right, and set to become a bigger one - not meaning in your zone, but in many countries world-wide. The business about when you can take your water allocation sounds familiar, too - again, not my experience, but my relations'.

 

[Llama]

"is that enough?" I asked - it was the garlic being chopped at that point.
"Noooohh," she said. "Again - again-again!"
I hinted about easier ways to chop/mince garlic, but she said this way was "more delicious" - I was in humble apprentice mode, and didn't argue!

Now that´s how you know you´re learning from an expert

 

[aiminglow]

Tomorrow she and her husband will taste my yet-to-be-made attempt - I need to buy some dill for the finishing touch.

 

[Cate]

I love the flavour of Dill. I'm sure it will be delicious

 

[aiminglow]

Thank you! I've bought the dill, and preparations are now in train.

 

[jackbenimble]

Nice - hope you enjoy it!

 

[Llama]

Enjoy both the soup and the company!

 

[aiminglow]

Nice - hope you enjoy it!

Enjoy both the soup and the company!

Thank you both! I loved the relaxed dinner with friends, and the soup was passed by the fierce examiner (joke!) but the general opinion of the household was that I was a little too light on the salt and the garlic. The salt was as I liked it, but I agree it could have been more garlicky without going over the top.

 

[Cate]

You can't have too much garlic, in my opinion! Glad you had a nice day

 

[Llama]

What Cate said. Garlic is life.

 

[aiminglow]

You can't have too much garlic, in my opinion...

... Garlic is life.

Garlic party!

 

[Llama]

I'm in!

 

[Marsia]

My friend once went to a documentary called "Garlic Is As Good As 10 Mothers". He said they walked around the theater with trays of baked garlic for smell-o-vision!

 

[aiminglow]

... they walked around the theater with trays of baked garlic for smell-o-vision!

Brilliant!

 

[alligatorob]

Waiting eagerly for your weigh-in today, Rob! i.e waiting to hear the sounds of the door of the 250-300 club shattering into fragments as you smash that barrier!

Thank you! It is very kind of you to read and then post in my diary, it makes me feel better knowing others are supporting me. If I don't gain a couple of pounds over night I should be below 300 lbs in the morning. It will be a while before I get to my low of the century.

the water part - yes it's an issue all right, and set to become a bigger one - not meaning in your zone, but in many countries world-wide.

Yes it is interesting. We are in Northern Utah and have a kind of unique water situation, most of our precipitation falls as snow in the mountains, just east of us, a couple of miles, and runs off into the Great Salt Lake just 3 miles or so west of us. So we have our own supply and if its not used it goes into a dead sea, but we are venerable to dry years, and now more and more of the water is going to lawns and suburban development.

 

[Llama]

If you ask me watering your lawn with anything other than rainwater collected on your roof should be illegal.