Wednesday, September 5, 2012

off to the orchard...

 ..



Galloping, galloping, here we go... Off to the orchard, don't be slow.



Up in the green orchard there is a green tree... The finest of peaches! you ever did see.






 The peaches are ripe and starting to fall...




 And here is a basket to gather them all.










Yes, peaches! The last day of august found us driving 2 hours away to an abandoned orchard.

(I laughed at myself on the way as I realized that it was the furthest I had been from home in more than 5 years! It was quite a journey for us, a very fun family outing...)

Every year we have a very good apple harvest, visiting various wild trees in our area. Sometimes we have plums, earlier this summer there were lots of apricots. We have never harvested peaches before!

Orchards are wonderful for so many reasons, so very beautiful, there is just something very special feeling about being in one. And they give us food.

Many bushels of peaches were gathered. Many peaches were eaten while picking, many peaches have been eaten in the days since. And so so many peaches have been put away into the freezer to feed us in the coming months.

We have never had this many peaches before, ever ever ever.
If you add up all the peaches we have ever had in all the last 15 years, this is still way way more peaches. (Organic peaches are so expensive, not something we are able to buy often..)

So our recent days have been all about peaches. And gratitude. And peach stained hands.
And peaches in our porridge, and on our sunday pancakes, and the best peach cobbler we have ever had.

~

And while we were in the orchard Chessa and I were singing some of our favorite orchard circle time songs (mostly from Let Us Form a Ring, Acorn Hill Anthology). And early this morning when I started writing this post I had these verses and songs in my head. The girls were having some outside time before lesson time, and then they came in asking if we could have circle time. We started our homeschool year on Monday, slowly and gently, and there had been no morning circle time yet. Today Chloe told me she was wanting it so so much. So we all joined in with this orchard circle time which we have done every year since Chloe's kindergarten year, seven years in a row now. It was very nice and just right.

(And I really hope to be sharing some homeschool posts soon, it has been so long...)


The sun is bright,
the sky is blue
Let's go to the orchard,
you can come too... 


Happy new September days to you all!


...





8 comments:

Sara said...

How wonderful to find an abandoned orchard! It has been eight years since we went peach picking-- I remember coming home with two very small children absolutely dripping and sticky with juice. :)

We love the orchard circle verses, too. We don't actually have anything to harvest this year, but the season doesn't feel right without them.

I'm looking forward to your homeschooling posts-- this must mean you are feeling much better! So happy to hear that!

Sarah said...

You are so lucky to have fresh peaches. They don't grow near us.

meghann said...

Oh that looks like so much fun—and all those fresh peaches! Wonderful… xo

angie said...

Big smiles for peaches! We have one peach tree and it was so plentiful this year that I'm really thinking we need 2 or 3 more! Such a wonderful fruit and tree!

Unknown said...

An abandoned orchard of peaches?! I dream about this sort of thing ;-)

Christine said...

Oh how I wish I lived near an abandoned peach orchard! What a blessing!

kyndale said...

Wow, how did you find this orchard? We've been starting homeschooling very slowly and it feels good. We're incorporating the morning circle and the boys really love it. I hope you're having a nice weekend!

Tahara said...

It is wonderful that you can drive to an abandoned orchard!...And one with peaches :-)...Fresh peaches taste wonderful, enjoy!