The Moldy Peaches: A Sad Tale of Fruit Gone Bad, Not a Stirring Tale of a Quirky Band.

I HATE to waste food.  My husband is so aware of this fact that before he threw away 14lbs of organic peaches, he took a picture of their decay to prove the need for his seemingly rash decision. I am much more of a cut-around-the-bad-stuff-and-use-the-rest kinda gal, while he errs on the side of cut out some good stuff to make sure you got it all kinda guy.

But the real story is not our differing approaches to dealing with waste, but how I ended up with a box full of undeniably sad peaches.

Summer's bounty comes when it comes. In our case, we order locally grown organic fruit from Crown O'Maine on Thursdays and, with any luck, it arrives the following Thursday. I usually mark some up fifty cents or so and put it out on the sidewalk just beacause I think every pedestrain city needs something of a fruit stand. Anything that doesn't get sold the first day get turned into wine, jam, dessert, vodka infusions, shrub, syrup, or something so I try to place my orders with the idea that I will be processing all of it just in case it doesn't sell.

So far things have gone well, there has been one fruit per week, but then July happened and all in one week we had access to organic blueberries, green beans, and peaches. What is a wannabe homesteader like me to do? Order 'em all!

Dilly beans, blueberry jam, and blueberry wine ain't no thang, so I knew I could bang out that piece of it no problem. Peaches, on the other hand, well, I knew there would be peeling and pitting involved so it would inherently be harder. I also knew that with Grant's first birthday, the weekend was sure to be full to the brim and that Monday would be the first opportunity I would have to address the box of peaches.

And I had plans: Peaches in syrup from Food in Jars, peaches in BOURBON syrup, also from Food in Jars, and honeyed peaches from the hip girl's guide to homemaking. Not to mention the quaffables: wine and a vodka infusion!

Monday night arrived and I thought the peaches would be ripened to perfection, but instead they were gone. With our KahBang events looming on Thursday and Friday, I had to sit out a whole week of canning.

I was sad about the money, but even more than that, I was sad about the loss of these perfect little fruits that had spent months working towards a sweet encapsulation, only to find themselves unceremoniously dropped in the trash can.

My new box of peaches arrived today, the only fruit I am planning to process this week (sorry tomatoes and cucumbers).