Thanks Amy, its still Tuesday here, but I am optimistic.
We picked peaches again, got about 3 bushel tonight, see the picture. That's 5, 5 gallon buckets full, and there are 8 gallons in a bushel, so ~3 bushel. If we get the same yield as yesterday that will make about 6 gallons. We could have picked more, but got tired, its hot right now. If we keep up at this pace we'll have probably 30 gallons in the freezer by the end of the season.
Petal you asked how we juice them, we cut them in half to get the pits out and cut any bad spots off. Then we have a grinder we put them through and then we have a fruit press to squeeze the ground ones. I'll see if I can get pictures tomorrow when we juice. I don't think you would want to do this on a small scale, but there should be a way to juice left over fruit. I really don't know much about juicing, this is my first time. We are learning as we go.
Petal, you are also right about the nice farmer. Actually we have 2 farmers, brothers. They are great guys, the deal we have with them is they do all the work, and we get the left over peaches. They actually pay us a little, based on a fraction of the harvest. I have told them to keep the money we'd be happy if they just do a good job with the peaches. Problem is the brothers are 85 and 86, I have no idea how long they will keep doing this, or how we will replace them when they retire. They tell me they have no plans for retirement, and farming must be good for you both are in great health and shape. They have been farming in this area and what is now our property for over 60 years. They also farm the ground next to ours, its in veggies, that's where we get fresh melons, squash, and excess tomatoes, I am always insistent that they let us pay for what we take, but they always try to turn down the money. The cantaloupe they gave us a couple of weeks back were out of their truck and they absolutely refused payment. Our peaches and the crops next door are only a small part of what they farm. They tell me they take care of about 4,000 peaches total. They farm a lot of the little patches of undeveloped land in the area.
We bought this place almost 3 years ago, at that time there were only 20 peach trees, the rest was in tomatoes. We got the farmers to plant an additional 80 peach trees so now we have 108. The new trees are now 3 years old and are producing for the first time, so we have a whole lot more peaches than ever before, that's why we started juicing. This is also the first year we are more or less finished fixing up the house and yard, and with starting to retire we have more time for peaches.
Tuesday
breakfast
yogurt 90
cereal 110
lunch
yogurt 90
cereal 110
snack 2
peaches 98
dinner
the last bite of lean pork 65
hard boiled egg 78
peach 59
snack
peach, eaten whist picking peaches 59
yogurt 90
nightcap
big glass of peach juice 236
total calories 1,085
Henry IV, emperor of he Holy Roman empire declared the "Peace of God" in 1085. It nominally applied in all the imperial territories of the empire. Lead by the Catholic Church Wikipedia says it was the first mass peace movement in history. I am skeptical, I suspect this peace, must like the earlier Pax Romania was more about the guy in charge dominating his enemies and trying to keep them from ousting him. It didn't last long, Henry sent an invasion force into Italy just a few years later.
Seriously, I might need recipes!